Informed by gendered organizational theory, I discuss “lone girls” in Israel’s Defense Forces (IDF), that is, women serving in bases where the majority of soldiers are men. I argue that the IDF’s military structure pushes these token women into traditional gendered behavior. Contrary to basic tenets of gendered organizational logic, many of these women find that doing gender in traditional ways is empowering. They manipulate gender and femininity to their advantage as IDF soldiers, as a means of attaining a sense of organizational belonging when other paths are blocked. Thus, lone girls benefit from their army experiences on an individual level. On a collective level, though, their presence on male-dominated bases does little to strengthen the position of women in the IDF and in Israeli society in general. Rather, it serves to reinforce traditional gender expectations for men and women.
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