Interdisciplinary Seminar:
Education for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women
Convener: Kathy Mumford, Australia

Young Religious Women Study Torah: A Means of Personal Empowerment
Rina Shachar, Israel Association of University Women

For generations Jewish religious women have been excluded from public activities and from leadership roles. Even in the home, their spiritual voices have been extensively limited by men who determine Halachic laws. Women were excluded from studying Torah and were not educated to think independently. Nonetheless, women did not accept this and began to fight for their rights. Slowly but surely they began to learn and open a window to the world that had been closed to them for a long time. The establishment of Midrashot (seminaries) for girls serves as serious leverage for the empowerment of young religious women.

This study examines the reasons young girls from religious homes study at the Mishradot and its effect on them. The sample comprised twenty young women aged 19-20. The findings confirm the process of change and empowerment they undergo. It is apparent that the yearning to study stems from the great need of these young women to understand better, to expand knowledge, to be well established and to strengthen the personality. The valuing of gender equality and new feminine perceptions are important results of acquiring knowledge and an understanding of the essence of social-masculine patriarchy. A woman rabbi educator who knows Torah, Halacha and Talmud is a new and very important model to serve as a foundation for changes in perception among both young males and females and to lead the younger generation to integrate values of equality and true sharing into their religious faith.

Dr Rina Shachar, President of the Israel Association of University Women and a member of IFUW Council, holds a PhD from Bar-Ilan University, Israel (Faculty of Social Sciences), where she is a Senior Lecturer at Judea & Samaria College. She is Chairperson of the Women Network Committee, which aims to foster cooperation between feminist men and feminist women to advance gender equality in Israel.