MO Woman

Who Studies Better: Girls or Boys?

The NY Times reports (again) that women are doing better academically than men on college campuses. But how this will impact these womens' future places in the workforce reamins to be seen. The article concludes:

Still, men in the work force have always done better in pay and promotions, in part because they tend to work longer hours, and have fewer career interruptions than women, who bear the children and most of the responsibility for raising them.

Whether the male advantage will persist even as women's academic achievement soars is an open question. But many young men believe that, once in the work world, they will prevail.

"I think men do better out in the world because they care more about the power, the status, the C.E.O. job," Mr. Kohn said. "And maybe society holds men a little higher."

Hebrew Index Cards - Online

The online Jewish Education man - Jacob Richman - has produced yet another great learning resource. His new Learn Hebrew site is an easy, free, way to broaden one's vocabulary (with audio capacity), and translates words into Hebrew from four different languages (English, French, Russian and Spanish).

Tzahali

There is a very interesting interview with Michal Nagan in the most recent Deot. She was just appointed head of Tzahali, the first pre-army program which prepares girls spiritually, halakhically and emotionally for their upcoming Tzahal experience. Thanks again to Rabbi Alex Israel for this link.

Virtual Beit Midrash

For the first time the Virtual Beit Midrash of Yeshivat Har Etzion has included in their parsha series a dvar Torah by a woman. Rabbanit Sharon Rimon's insights on the half-shekel census in parshat Ki Tissa can be read here.

Update: First, thanks to friend Rabbi Alex Israel for pointing this out to me. Also thanks to Alex and Krum for directing me to the actual first dvar Torah by Rabbanit Sharon Rimon (two weeks ago). Ki Tissa was the second.

Jew-kipedia

The Jewish Encyclopedia has just gone on-line... for free. The Encyclopedia is outdated, having been published between 1901-1906. However, they say:

We are considering inviting the Internet community to help us update the encyclopedia -- if you are interested in volunteering (as a writer, editor, etc.) please join our Mailing List.

Could this be the beginning of a Jewish Wikipedia?

(Via Michael Eisenberg)

Women in Leadership II

A very interesting discussion has been happening on the Lookjed list (once again, a great resource for Jewish educators and people interested in Jewish education). Rabbi Yitzchak Jacobs asks why there are not more women in school administration roles. All of the responses are thoughtful and worth reading, but I have higlighted one here by Jordana Schoor, the Executive Director of the Orthodox Caucus:

The Orthodox Caucus has been researching and trying to raise awareness about the dearth of women within Orthodox leadership. What is most disappointing about reading the Lookjed exchange is that we have found Jewish education to be the place where women have made the most inroads and progress. While the numbers and recognition are certainly not at 50%or anywhere near there, there are many women very satisfied with their careers on all levels of education, and contributing to our schools in significant ways. While there is certainly much work to be done to change cultural attitudes and expectations and to give more women equal access to leadership positions, the fact that (to name a few) Ramaz, Kushner, Beth Tefilla and Yeshivat Rambam (coed schools), and more all- girls schools are headed by women is a step in the right direction.

Infertility Awareness

Yeshiva University's Center for the Jewish Future's recent newsletter announces a new project which will develop a training program for rabbis to build expertise on issues relating to infertility in halakha:

As a follow-up to Rabbi Brander’s challenge, CJF’s Special Projects division has spearheaded a groundbreaking intensive training program in the field of infertility and Jewish law for a select group of rabbis. Training for these students will be implemented by a cadre of experts in the field of medicine and Jewish law drawn from faculty at CJF, RIETS, and YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine. The program will be coordinated by Rabbi Josh Joseph, director of the Special Projects division, and involving a curriculum developed and taught by Rabbi Menachem Burstein, director of Machon Puah of Jerusalem, an Israel-based institute dedicated to finding halakhic solutions to fertility matters, Rabbi Kenneth Brander and Rabbi Dr. Eddie Reichman, emergency medicine physician, and professor at YU’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

Haredi Feminism?

According to yet another interesting article in Ha'aretz about women in the Haredi community, 43 women are about to graduate from a new Haredi College for Women in Jerusalem.

It was created by Adina Bar Shalom, who happens to also be the daughter of Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef. Presumably the challenges for many of these women seeking higher education is doubley difficult due to the fact that they are both Haredi and Sephardic, two communities which generally have more traditional views regarding women's issues. According to the article:

The first class of ultra-Orthodox social workers is undoubtedly the ultimate achievement for Adina Bar Shalom. Lacking any academic education ("because I was a woman and from a Sephardic background, and in those days, what could be expected of me?"), she went through some personal changes several years ago. One day, she abandoned the world of elite sewing where she worked and taught, and decided to take part in moving the ultra-Orthodox sector toward higher education and professional training. Today she is fully associated with this process. According to Bar Shalom, her father did not hesitate to support her.

The College is described as an environment in which Haredi women will feel comfortable. There are also teachers and rabbis available for students to talk to about resolving any issues that may arise between their studies and their ideology.

Whether or not you want to call it feminism (and I use this word knowing the many negative connotations associated with it), here is an example of rabbis acknowledging the intellectual needs of women. If for me and my friends this need is satisfied by becoming doctors or lawyers or teachers of Talmud, for Haredi women it is having an opportunity to go to college.

The State of Women and Talmud Study

LamedZayin of the blogging group Maven Yavin has begun a survey of the sources which discuss whether or not a woman can learn Talmud. As he notes, this topic was also covered at Hirhurim. One of the limitations of these mainly halachic surveys is that the impact that women's Talmud study has had on Jewish society is not dicussed. Along these lines Mirty asks:

What is the value of a learned woman in Jewish society and society at large? Why do we value this now, and did not in earlier times? (Do we value it now?)

Based on my experience, access to serious Torah learning for women has only had the most positive effects on Jewish families, the Jewish community and women themselves. The women I know who have chosen a life devoted to learning and teaching Talmud have inspired countless other girls and women and they are also some of the most impressive wives, mothers and people I know.

An update on the state of women's learning: Over Hanukka I heard a woman speak with incredible expertise at Matan Ra'anana about Rebbe Nachman of Breslav's mystical interpretations of the menorah. At Nishmat's Yoatzot Halacha program, women are trained to answer shailas about hilchot niddah and related areas. They have shown that more women are keeping halacha more accurately because of the greater comfort they feel in speaking to a woman about these issues. Graduates of the Drisha Scholar's Circle have taught high school level gemara, providing teenage girls and boys with a model of women Talmud teachers. Moreover, Drisha now has a female Rosh Beit Midrash, Devorah Zlochower (a graduate of the Scholar's Circle). YU instituted a program for advanced Talmud study for women a few years ago as well.

Women are no longer just studying Talmud, they are teaching it, answering halachic questions and emerging as leaders in batei midrash for women.

Of course I am aware that to a certain degree these things are more widespread in New York, Boston and many parts of Israel. While Talmud study is often a regular part of Modern Orthodox education for girls in a number of New York schools, that is not the case in most religious schools in Israel. There are some impressive girls I know who study Talmud as an extra-curricular activity. But they still receive the message that Talmud is not offered as a part of their regular educational curriculum, while it is offered to the boys.

I think there has always been some space given to learned women in Jewish society and I will write more about that soon. But these successful women are the greatest demonstration of the value of women's learning.

Too Smart for Their Own Good?

Today's NY Times (TS subscription required) includes an Op-Ed piece by John Teirney on the topic of women outnumbering men on US campuses. Apparently the expected female-male ratio among college graduates is expected to reach 60-40 over the next few years. He relates this growing phenomenon to the potential problems it may cause in the long run for marriage prospects among these men and women.

Tierney argues that if women, on average, are more educated than men, that also means they will on average, earn more money. And since studies have proven that women prefer not to "marry down" financially, they may find their pool of eligible bachelors dwindling.

"Of course, some women marry for love and find a man's resources irrelevant," Buss says. "It's just that the men women tend to fall in love with, on average, happen to have more resources."

Which means that, on average, college-educated women and high-school-educated men will have a harder time finding partners as long as educators keep ignoring the gender gap that starts long before college. Advocates for women have been so effective politically that high schools and colleges are still focusing on supposed discrimination against women: the shortage of women in science classes and on sports teams rather than the shortage of men, period. You could think of this as a victory for women's rights, but many of the victors will end up celebrating alone.

A couple of thoughts on this article:

1. This presentation of where women are headed in the workplace is very different from studies which have shown that many highly educated women are giving up on their careers in exchange for a more traditional family paradigm.

2. Tierney's concluding point is that feminism in education seems to have reached its goal. Women are now equally (or overly!) represented in colleges and now we need to take a step back and focus on men. What is really interesting to note however, is that even if women are outnumbering men they are still gravitating to more "female" majors, such as education and psychology. Melana Zyla Vickers writes in The Weekly Standard:

The gender gap is even more palpable within the colleges themselves, because women and men gravitate to different majors. While a split in preferences has always been the case, the gender imbalance in the overall college makes departments so segregated that campus life just ain't what it used to be. In North Carolina's public and private universities, a typical psychology class has four women for every man. In education, the ratio is five to one. The English and foreign language departments are heavily female as well.

You might have thought the solution to this problem is to encourage boys to take an interest in these "female fields". But this article suggests encouraging more boys to go into the already male-dominated fields.

The answer that education experts keep recycling is that American girls need to be encouraged to go into quantitative fields. After all, if there's one thing Harvard president Larry Summers taught the nation, it's that questioning women's aptitude for science is an absolute no--no. But surely some reflection is needed on whether science, mathematics, and engineering wouldn't be more attractive to American boys if more of them were encouraged to discover, at an early age, whether they have strengths in those fields and were warmly encouraged to pursue them in their schooling.

3. Overall, I think Tierney raises a very important issue here. Personally, I would not have presented the issue as "stop spending so much time on the women and start thinking about the men." What is most important is that both girls and boys are instilled with an excitement about learning.

Moreover, it sounds as though these studies are showing that girls and boys on average just do have different needs in terms of learning, and possibly different interests (whether due to nature or nurture). And, one way to help children enjoy and explore learning is through creating some sort of curriculum geared specifically toward the individual (and differing) needs of boys and girls.