Gender Affairs Advisor to the Chief of Staff

The Gender Affairs Advisor's office combines policy development, research, advice to commanders, prevention programs, and support services. Its work includes the integration of women into military roles, sexual-harassment prevention and response, assistance for transgender personnel, and services connected to pregnancy, fertility, and parenthood.[4][2]

By March 2026, the office also described its remit in operational terms: developing balanced field-command and staff career paths for women and men and working with logistics officials on medical support, food, infrastructure, and equipment for women in combat roles.[6]

The office traces its roots to the IDF Women's Corps, known as Chen, which served as a professional support system and a parallel administrative structure alongside the IDF's command hierarchy. The Corps formulated policy on female recruits' service, advised commanders, trained female recruits, NCOs, and officers, and addressed service conditions, role integration, and women's health.[7] Restrictions on women's service had been embedded in law and regulations until 1987, when the provision listing jobs closed to women was removed.[5]

The legal watershed came with the 1995 Alice Miller Supreme Court case. A subsequent change to the Security Service Law took effect in January 2000 and stated that a woman could perform any IDF job, including combat positions, and receive equal rights upon discharge.[5] On August 1, 2001, the Women's Corps was incorporated into the General Staff rather than continuing as an independent unit, and the IDF formally announced a new body headed by the Chief of Staff's Advisor on Women's Affairs.[7][3]

Brig. Gen. Suzy Yogev, the last commander of the Women's Corps, became the first holder of the advisory role.[8][3] Yogev said the new body would advise, set policy, and monitor women's integration, while the structural change was intended to make commanders directly responsible for female soldiers as they were for male soldiers.[3] During the transition, she worked to arrange female soldiers' service throughout the IDF while balancing organizational efficiency with sensitivity to gender issues.[8]

The IDF adopted the "From Sector to Gender" program in 2010 and renamed the unit from Chief of Staff's Advisor on Women's Affairs, or Yohalan, to Chief of Staff's Advisor on Gender Affairs, or Yohalam, in February 2016.[9] Former adviser Brig. Gen. Ella Shado-Shechtman later explained that the revised title reflected an expanded mandate providing assistance to women and men serving in the IDF.[4]

An Israeli government guide describes the office as a military division that assists women soldiers and officers experiencing discrimination, provides guidance and information, advises field commanders on integrating women, researches women's military service, and determines military policy for dealing with sexual harassment.[1] A Begin-Sadat Center publication describes the office's stated function as bringing a gender perspective to IDF staff work and organizational change.[10]

The office's research mandate has affected the practical conditions under which women serve in combat. Medical and physiological studies described by INSS led to measures including briefing commanders and doctors to prevent injuries; adjusting training regimes, strength scales, nutrition, personal equipment, and weapons; reviewing facilities; modifying screening procedures; and establishing a preparatory course before basic training.[5] A 2015 Jerusalem Post profile also described role assessments and workplace adaptations, including redesigned combat vests, smaller combat boots, and modified equipment for Air Force technicians.[11]

In early 2007, the office appointed the Segev Committee to consider the future of women's service in the IDF. The committee's conclusions drew on gender mainstreaming, an approach intended to incorporate a gender perspective into decision-making at multiple organizational levels.[10]

After her appointment in 2021, Brig. Gen. Ella Shado-Shechtman developed a General Staff gender strategy intended to serve as a "kind of compass" for making fuller use of the IDF's personnel, including women's capabilities, to improve operational effectiveness.[12] She said the strategy sought to identify barriers arising from a patriarchal society as well as barriers created when women underestimated their own abilities.[4] During her tenure, combat positions in elite units opened to women, and women began undergoing selection for reconnaissance units.[12]

In a March 2026 interview, Brig. Gen. Rosital Aviv described the office as working toward balanced service paths for women and men across field-command and staff roles. She also described cooperation with the Technology and Logistics Directorate on medical support, personal equipment, food, and infrastructure for women combat soldiers.[6] Aviv said more than 8,500 women were serving in combat roles and that one in five combat soldiers was a woman; the figures were presented as her statements rather than independently verified totals.[6]

The office marked an institutional shift from a separate Women's Corps toward direct command responsibility for servicewomen throughout the IDF.[8][3] This period also saw a major expansion in women's military opportunities: by 2018, 92 percent of positions were reported open to women, and the number of women in combat service had risen sixfold between 2005 and 2017.[5]

The office has increasingly framed gender integration as an operational and personnel issue rather than solely as a matter of formal equality. Its recent strategies have linked the removal of barriers, the adaptation of equipment and service conditions, and the development of command pathways to the fuller use of the IDF's human resources and improved operational effectiveness.[4][6]

A significant portion of the office's work addresses sexual harassment and violence within the IDF. Measures associated with the office have included establishing the Mahut support center for people affected by sexual misconduct, training commanders, and clarifying procedures.[13] A 2017 Israeli government report states that Mahut was established in 2012 at a centrally located army base. It provides assistance and counseling, including psychiatric counseling, concerning sexual violence, domestic and intimate-partner violence, unplanned pregnancy, and some events occurring in civilian life.[2] Applicants may contact the center without first filing a complaint or obtaining a doctor's or commander's referral and can receive personal support from a female officer, information about available options, a 24-hour professional response, and confidential legal aid from a reserve military advocate.[2]

Prevention measures involving the adviser's office include information for new soldiers, training during basic, command, officer, and senior-command courses, periodic prevention campaigns, and training for unit supervisors.[2] The office also participates in reviews of the General Staff order prohibiting sexual violence, a gender review every two years, and periodic reports on sexual-violence cases presented to the Chief of the General Staff and the General Staff forum.[2] Information received by the office may be forwarded, with complainant confidentiality protected, to the relevant Military Advocate's office, and the office provides professional assistance to the Military Prosecution in sensitive cases.[2]

In 2014, Mahut received nearly 700 inquiries concerning sexual harassment, while more than 120 Military Police Criminal Investigation Division investigations were opened on the subject.[13] In 2022, the Yohalam unit received 2,425 inquiries concerning sexual abuse, of which 1,574 concerned abuse inside the military. It provided support and treatment to 514 soldiers, 45 percent more than in 2020, amid a reported 82 percent increase in IDF sexual-offense complaints since 2016.[14]

An IDF spokesperson stated in 2021 that service members received sexual-harassment prevention and response training during their initial training and every six months afterward. Each unit also had a permanent Yohalam representative available on sexual-assault issues.[15] Shado-Shechtman said her office worked with military police and prosecutors to broaden the ability to pursue perpetrators and significantly expanded treatment capacity at Mahut.[12] A separate center, Metzapim, operates under the directorate and supports career personnel dealing with fertility, pregnancy loss, children with disabilities, single parenthood, and related issues.[4]

Brig. Gen. Suzy Yogev became the first Adviser to the Chief of Staff on Women's Issues in 2001, transitioning directly from her command of the Women's Corps.[7][3] Brig. Gen. Gila Kalifi-Amir was serving as Women's Affairs Advisor in 2011, when she publicly criticized the implementation of the IDF's Joint Service Order.[5]

Brig. Gen. Ella Shado-Shechtman was promoted to the position in 2021 and had recently completed her term by the publication of a later interview.[12] That interview identified Brig. Gen. Rosital Aviv as her replacement, and Aviv was serving as the adviser in March 2026.[4][6]

The office and its work have attracted political and legal controversy. In 2011, Brig. Gen. Gila Kalifi-Amir characterized implementation of the IDF's Joint Service Order, which governed religious accommodation, as a "double loss": women faced restrictions on their movement and effective functioning, while rules for proper integration were interpreted so strictly that they became impracticable and effectively imposed religious extremism.[5] The criticism reflected wider tensions between gender integration and religious accommodation in military service.

The expanded gender mandate has also faced political criticism. In 2023, coalition politician Avi Maoz, head of the Noam party, called for the unit to be shut down.[16] In January 2023, then-Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi rejected calls to close or reduce it, describing the unit as important and saying it conducted extensive, significant work throughout IDF units and for the General Staff.[17]

A legal dispute arose over an administrative procedure for investigating sexual-harassment reports that the office introduced in January 2024. The chief military defense attorney petitioned the Supreme Court to cancel it, arguing that it bypassed established procedures and threatened suspects' rights. The IDF responded that the procedure was legally authorized, intended to help commanders protect service members, and provided fair process through independent investigators.[18] The report describing the petition did not establish a court ruling on the merits.

The position has appeared under several English titles. Jewish Virtual Library and Jewish Women's Archive sources use formulations including "Advisor on Women's Issues" for the office created in 2001.[7][8] Later sources use "Gender Affairs Advisor," reflecting the expanded Hebrew title, while transliterations of its acronym include Yohalam and Yohelm.[4]