Roles Of Women In Orthodox Judaism Essay

Throughout the entirety of history, religion has been an important and arguably essential part of life. Specifically, the evolving role of women in religion, which have never become less crucial across many societies over millennia. Unfortunately, in many religions, such as the most followed religions in the world, Islam and Christianity, women are treated as less important than men. However, in Judaism women are treated of equal importance to men, just with separate duties and expectations from G-d (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). The role of women in Judaism is heavily influenced by Jewish law, the Torah, and cultural norms established throughout thousands of years (Dubrov). Orthodox Judaism believes in traditional gender roles for

In Orthodox Judaism, men and women are seen as equal, but assigned with traditional gender roles and responsibilities, women focus on their role as wives, mothers, and keepers of the house, and are often limited to religious life inside the household (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). “In traditional Judaism, women are for the most part seen as separate but equal. Women's obligations and responsibilities are different from men's, but no less important” (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). The primary role and responsibility of a woman is wife, mother, and keeper of the household (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). Jewish life revolves around the household, where women are obligated to maintain their household’s Jewish environment while serving their husband and G-d in accordance with Jewish law (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). Whereas, men are the breadwinners. This arrangement undoubtedly gives more power to the husband as a consequence of how society typically functions, however they are still seen as equals just with different obligations in Orthodox Judaism (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). In arguably the most important aspect of

As G-d is without a gender, men are not seen as being more important than women for the reason that they have the same gender and therefore the same traits and characteristics as G-d (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). Although, G-d might be referred to with masculine pronouns and titles because Hebrew, like many languages, has no gender neutral pronouns, this does not mean that G-d is male but that there is no way to express G-d as being genderless simply using pronouns and terms (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). Additionally, it is believed that men and women were created as one in the image of G-d, and later separated into male and female (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). Therefore, men and women, like G-d, possess both masculine and feminine traits (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism). However, women are not always treated as equal to men. Traditional roles often come with traditional belief systems, which are often founded on misogyny. In the Talmud, a religious Jewish text, many misogynistic points are made (The Role of Women in Orthodox Judaism) For example, “Various rabbis at various times describe women as lazy,