IDF is one of the only nine troops in the world to recruit women to the army according to the mandatory military conscription law, and it is the earliest one.
Female has begun serving since the founding of the IDF in 1948. The Security Services Act of 1949 stipulates that anyone who is an Israeli citizen or permanent resident who is over 18 years of age and who is not exempt from service, both men and women, must enlist in the military. This law stipulates that men serve for 30 months and women serve for 18 months. The law also provides that women can apply for retirement for religious and three other reasons: parenting, marriage and pregnancy.
When it was first established in 1948, facing the complex surrounding situation, the IDF was forced to use all available personnel as combat soldiers, regardless of gender . The first Prime Minister of Israel, David Ben-Gurion said at the time:
Our enemies are many, and if the women in our country do not know how to fight, then this kind of security will not exist. The men are fighting on the front line, who will protect the women and children at home? Women must also learn to use weapons and serve in the military.
50s Israeli female soldiers
However, after the War of Independence, it continued until the late 1990s, and no women were allowed to hold combat positions except for the brief attempts to accept women into flying schools in the 1950s. Female soldiers are mainly responsible for logistics and work.
Until 2000, the equal amendment to the " National Defense Services Act" stipulated that women's rights to hold any position in the IDF are the same as men's rights, and women are allowed to hold almost all combat positions. Women recruited for combat units must serve 30 months, rather than the normal 21-month mandatory service period for women.
In early 2000, the IDF decided to deploy women in the artillery troops, followed by Infantry troops , armored divisions and elite combat troops . The Navy also decided to place women in their diving maintenance units.
As of 2021, women accounted for about 40% of the soldiers recruited by the IDF and about 25% of the officer regiment. In 2018, about 10,000 women served in the IDF for a long time. Despite the “mandatory” nature of the draft law, the average enrollment rate for women in recent years is only 58%, which is quite low compared to the average enrollment rate for men, with an average enrollment rate of about 75% of the number of recruits.
