Women Soldiers and Citizenship in Israel: Gendered Encounters with the State

"Women Soldiers and Citizenship in Israel: Gendered Encounters with the State is an important and rigorous study exploring the varied and shifting meanings that Israeli women ascribe to their military service. By analysing life stories and testimonies of over 120 women the text examines: How do women's gendered ethno-class positions shape their experiences of military service? How does the gendering of military roles shape women's gender awareness and their perceptions of citizenship? And how do women's specific positions in the military shape their awareness of, and reaction to, the state's inherent violence? This study should appeal to scholars and students of sociology, political science, gender studies, military sociology, political anthropology, social policy, Israel studies, and Middle East studies"--

"Women Soldiers and Citizenship in Israel: Gendered Encounters with the State is an important and rigorous study exploring the varied and shifting meanings that Israeli women ascribe to their military service. By analysing life stories and testimonies of over 120 women the text examines: How do women's gendered ethno-class positions shape their experiences of military service? How does the gendering of military roles shape women's gender awareness and their perceptions of citizenship? And how do women's specific positions in the military shape their awareness of, and reaction to, the state's inherent violence? This study should appeal to scholars and students of sociology, political science, gender studies, military sociology, political anthropology, social policy, Israel studies, and Middle East studies"--

1. Theorizing women's encounters with the State -- 2. Setting the stage -- 3. Serving the army as secretaries: intersectionality and multi-level contract -- 4. Contrasting gendered experiences: redoing and undoing gender -- 5. Contrasting gendered experiences: crossing boundaries -- 6. Dis/acknowledging sexual harassment -- 7. Dis/acknowledging military violence: women breaking the silence -- 8. Gendered citizenship and military service: a comparative perspective.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Chapter 1 Theorizing women's encounters with the state -- Gendered citizenship -- The military as an extreme case of a gendered state institution -- Women as "outsiders within" the military -- Key concepts and outline of the book -- Note -- Chapter 2 Setting the stage -- Gender and the military in Israel -- Research strategies -- Notes -- Chapter 3 Serving the army as secretaries: Intersectionality and multi-level contracts -- Women negotiating with the military -- Achieving respectability: Women of marginalized groups -- Entitlement to self-fulfillment: Women from dominant groups -- Differing contracts, divergent experiences: Gender, class, and cultural schemas -- Exploring alternative contract: Religious women's resistance through military service -- Notes -- Chapter 4 Contrasting gendered experiences: Redoing and undoing gender -- The military's gendered role opportunities -- Women in traditional feminine roles committedto "proper femininity" -- Reducing gender in white-collar positions -- Notes -- Chapter 5 Contrasting gendered experiences: Crossing boundaries -- Reexamining gender models in non-traditional roles -- Power and shame in the narratives of women officers -- Women's military experiences as pathways to gendered citizenship -- Notes -- Chapter 6 Dis/acknowledging sexual harassment: Gray areas of violence -- Military's external and internal violence -- Militarized sexual harassment-The Israeli context -- Serving and surviving in a culture of harassment -- Women confronting sexual abuse -- Gray areas of sexual harassment -- Notes -- Chapter 7 Dis/acknowledging military violence: Women breaking the silence of occupation -- Do not hear, do not see, do not speak -- Women's anti-war protest -- Gendered silencing mechanisms