Judaism Women and Leadership
In the early stages of Judaism women were very limited to what they could and couldn't do, apart from that they were also very limited to doing things a man could do. For example a man could get a divorce from his wife but a woman could not, this is called a agunot "chained women", although these women may want to get a divorce but the husband will refuse to do so. Jewish women also had very limited education, they were simply taught to read write and run a household. They were given education in Judaism but only because it was essential to their daily lives, such as keeping kosher.
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In orthodox Judaism women have been working to improve themselves in Judaism such as leadership, but some orthodox rabbis try to say that these women are simply motivated by sociological reasons and are not true by religious motives. moving on to women as witnesses, they are generally not permitted to serve as witnesses in an orthodox Beit Din, but they have recently been able to serve as "toanot" in those courts.
Reform Judaism believes that men and women are equal, they reject the idea that jewish law is the sole legitimate form of jewish decision making. |
Sources Derived :
http://www.jewfaq.org/women.htm
http://www.jewfaq.org/women.htm