J2: Women

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Getting Even

The Twentieth Century has seen a slow but steady change in the social position of women. Do you realise that less than 80 years ago, women did not have the right to vote, they could not own property or enter into any of the professions. In the UK, women over the age of 30 finally gained the right to vote in 1918 after they had proven during World War One that they could perform any job a man could do. Only in 1928 however was the age limit for voting lowered to equal that of men - 21 years of age.

In comparison, even in ancient Israel, Jewish women always had the right to own property and of course nobody voted as the king was appointed by G-d. Yet Judaism has always defined male and female roles distinctly, generally allocating the public roles to men and the private roles to women. In the late 19th century these roles began to be challenged by new groups within Judaism: Reform, Conservative, Neo-Orthodoxy and Zionism; Slowly but steadily, challenged traditional views on the roles of women with varying results and outcomes.

In the Beginning

Genesis 1 states: "G-d created him (the first person). Male and female He created them. From this, Jewish commentators have learnt that the first human being was a hermaphrodite, a person with both male and female features. Genesis 2 tells the story of how G-d created Eve, the first woman from the "side" of Adam. (Jewish commentators are not keen on the "rib" idea, rather again imagining Adam as a hermaphrodite split sideways into two parts, male and female. From this it seems that the ideal is for there to be complete equality between men and women so how and when did things change?

The Biblical narrative is told mainly through a male perspective - G-d speaks to Noah and Abraham but not to their wives (or if G-d did we do not read about this). Yet the Jewish commentators tell us that Sarah was a more gifted prophet than her husband and Abraham certainly follows her advice and instructions and only takes another wife when she tells him to. The rest of the Bible tells us of hundreds of male prophets but only seven female prophets are spoken of. Deborah, the female judge and leader of Israel achieved great power but she seems to be an exception rather than a rule.

Is this inequality the result of the social norms of the time, or does Jewish law effectively reduce the status of women ? Was sexism in Judaism a product of the patriarchal (male-dominated) culture of the Middle East or is inequality built into the Jewish legal system ? You can of course argue both ways so let us first look at how Jewish Law defines the role of women.

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