Disability during military service in Israel: raising awareness of gender differences

Abstract

Women in Israel are required by law to serve in the national army. While disabled women veterans constitute about 6% of the total disabled veteran population, their injuries during service are similar to those of men, and include injuries sustained during combat, in training, or in traffic accidents. To date, no attempt has been made to study this unique population. The current research employs the social model of disability and examines gender differences among Israeli Defense Forces veterans who became disabled during their military service, in the areas of mental and physical health, perceived stigma, and social support. Findings show that disabled women veterans report significantly lower social support, lower monthly salaries, and experience more discrimination than their male counterparts. No differences were found in other variables. This research is an important step toward raising the awareness of gender differences, and its findings stress the need for additional studies which will provide further information regarding this distinctive population.

Keywords::

• women
• disability
• gender differences
• military service
• social model of disability

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ela Koren

Ela Koren is a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. She holds a BA degree in Psychology, Criminology and Sociology, and both MA and PhD degrees in Sociology, all from Bar-Ilan University. She specializes in social psychology, and is also a certified CBT psychotherapist. Her writing and research interests include disability, trends in Israeli society, ethics, and issues pertaining to sociology and social psychology.

Yoav S. Bergman

Yoav Bergman is a lecturer in the Interdisciplinary Department of Social Sciences at Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He holds a BA degree in Psychology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and both MA and PhD degrees in Psychology from Bar-Ilan University. His writing and research interests are cross-cultural perspectives of negative attitudes and shifts in such attitudes across the life cycle.

Michael Katz

Michael Katz is senior lecturer in the departments of psychology and education at Haifa University. He holds BA degrees in Mathematics, Psychology and Political Science from Bar-Ilan University, MA degree in Social Psychology also from Bar-Ilan University and MSc and DPhil degrees in Mathematics from Oxford University. He held teaching and research positions at Bar-Ilan University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Oxford University, London School of Economics, Queen's University at Kingston (ON), and San Francisco State University, and was visiting scholar at Stanford University and University of California at Berkeley. His writing, teaching, and research interests are in quantitative research methods in the social sciences, the study of attitudes and decision making, and the logic and philosophy of science and mathematics.