Women's Rights
By Ellen Olshansky, 7/25/2019
It is ironic that a famous cigarette commercial directed toward women decades ago touted “We’ve come a long way, baby” as it became “more acceptable” for women to smoke cigarettes! The meaning was that women were now independent and could make their own choices to smoke if that’s what they wanted. Is that really coming a long way? I think not; instead it was a pitch to encourage women to smoke. And so I pose the question: Have we truly come a long way? Why are we still questioning whether women should be able to make their own decisions about their own bodies despite the fact that they can... Read More
By Sharon Sobel , 6/06/2019
The outstanding success of last month’s inaugural Women of Reform Social Justice Conference (SJC) can be measured in myriad ways: the intriguing workshops, elegant Shabbat services, networking with friends, YES fundraising, and engaging plenaries. Appropriately, and in keeping with the theme of tikkun olam, the attendees were not given program books and a dozen flyers at registration but were asked to upload all conference materials to an app. Throughout SJC and continuing through the Religious Action Center’s Consultation on Conscience that followed, we received reminders about places to go... Read More
By Ally Karpel, 4/29/2019
The first 100 days of 2019 have included unprecedented efforts by states throughout the U.S. to ban or restrict reproductive rights. While the overall number of anti-abortion legislation introduced in U.S. states thus far in 2019 is essentially the same as in 2018, the nature of this year’s bills is more harmful and restrictive than anything we’ve seen in recent history. Prior to this year, the primary state-level attacks came in the form of targeted regulation of abortion providers (TRAP) laws. Though often disguised as regulations to ensure patient safety, TRAP laws are actually... Read More
By Andrea Stillman, 4/01/2019
This blog is adapted from a women’s empowerment event focused on the gender wage gap at Temple Rodef Shalom in Vienna, Virginia. 2019 – Next year we will celebrate the centennial of the passage of the 19th Amendment that gave women the right to vote. Today, women are graduating from college and earning advanced degrees at a higher rate than males. We have women role models in prestigious jobs including a significant increase of women in Congress. And since 2016, women in the military have served in combat. Yet, the Equal Rights Amendment that was introduced by Alice Paul in 1923 and... Read More
By Chaya Schneider, 3/20/2019
As a young child, I walked to shul with my father every Shabbat morning and watched the service intently as I hid beneath the fringes of his tallit. I especially relished hearing the weekly Torah portion and was intrigued by the colorful cantillation styles. One Shabbat, when I was nine years old, I had apparently talked too animatedly to the Torah reader (a teenage boy) about various tropes and was banished to the women’s section. What a shock! Not only could I no longer see the service, I couldn’t hear it either. Nevertheless, I continued attending services because prayer helped me connect... Read More
Subscribe to