Here's a take on Judaism, but Christianity has more than it's share of sexism. Apostle Paul made women cover their heads in shame and said they should defer to men, much to the delight of latter day mysoginist, Pope John Paul, not to mention the sexist evangelicals who blame women for all their problems rather than just growing up already. From Sara Kaye:

One specific exhibit "The Liberation of God" by Helene Aylon was especially interesting to me. In her exhibit, she highlighted, in pink, parts in lots of different copies of the Bible (only the first five books of Moses) that were patriarchal and misogynistic or that had violence and cruelty. I was so amazed that there were so many pink highlighted parts....Why was this man so angry? Why did he feel that women didn't have a place? Well, to start with we have to go back to the beginning, and the beginning according to Orthodox and religious Jewish thought, where it all started, is the Bible.

The Bible is actually somewhat confused about woman's creation. In one chapter of the Bible , it says that God created man and woman at the same time, but later it says that woman was created from the man’s rib.

In Genesis chapter one it says, "And God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them." But in Genesis chapter two it says: "And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from the man, made He a woman, and brought her unto man. And the man said 'bone of my bones; flesh of my flesh: and she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man." Why Eve was made from Adam's rib was explained in the Aggadah which is a part of the Talmud. It said that she was made from a hidden part of the man's body so she would be modest. To me, this pretty much summarizes why, in traditional Judaism, women are looked at as lower than men.

Genesis is also where women's equality ended. Because Eve ate from the tree of knowledge and persuaded Adam to do so, she was punished with the pain of childbirth and was obliged to submit to her husband's rule. So the Bible ratified the lower status of women. Relationships between a husband and wife were like those of slaves and masters. Even most of the women that we know in the Bible like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah are known mainly for what they did for men. Sarah gave her servant to her husband, Abraham, to produce their first child. Rebecca counseled Jacob, and Rachel and Leah shared a husband who was Jacob.

I think it's important to look at traditional Orthodox Judaism because that's where all the other forms of religious Judaism evolved from and also other non-Jewish traditions and cultures.

In Orthodoxy, I think that men are favored. The Bible was bad enough but the Talmud and laws of halakha made it even worse. Men's role is considered public and women's role is considered private. Women are responsible for making a good Jewish home. They are not counted as part of a Minyan (the minimum number of men needed to make up a prayer service).

The fourth blessing in a series of prayers that Orthodox men say every morning is "Blessed art Thou, Lord our God, King of the Universe, who has not made me a woman." Orthodox women claim that they don't mind this. They just think that the men are counting their blessings because women have more obligations than men. If I were an Orthodox woman, I wouldn't think men were counting their blessings for anything.

There are many laws and restrictions that women have to follow. The Laws of Modesty require women to wear clothing that covers their arms down to their elbows, with necklines not lower than the collarbone, and dresses that reach to the middle of the knee joint or below. The areas have to still be covered when bending, reaching, sitting, and so on. The Talmud requires married women to cover their hair and this is usually done by wearing a hat, a scarf, or a wig. They must not comport themselves in a sexual manner so their hair is covered because they are not allowed to look attractive to men. There is no reason to be attractive since they are already married. Women are also forbidden to sing alone when they are with a man other than their husband. A man and a women are not even allowed to touch, if they are not married or related. Also, a woman is not allowed to wear perfume, cologne, etc. and last, women and men have to be separated during prayer for fear that they would be distracted if they sat together. Women are excluded from leading public prayer, being counted in a minyan, and being called up to the bimah to read from the Torah. And Orthodox women are not allowed to be witnesses in a court or even to attend the circumcisions of their own sons.

"When a woman has a flow of blood, where blood flows from her body, she shall be a niddah for seven days." This is what the law says about a woman during her menstrual period. Niddah means separated and once a woman is separated she remains so until she is "clean". Before she can emerge from niddah, she must be put into a mikvah which is a ritual bath. Also, after a woman gives birth, if the baby is a boy then the mother would be unclean for seven days, but if it is a girl then the mother would be unclean for two weeks. Now even right at birth, baby girls are judged because of their gender.

Women were given very few choices in marriage. In the past, their husbands were picked for them. They didn't have any say in whom they were to marry. If the woman chooses her husband and her father forbids her to marry him she has no say and can't do anything about it. Until late in the 18th century most girls were engaged at 12 and married at 14 so they had no childhood, and once they were married their life was devoted to serving their husband and doing whatever he demanded. Which I think is outrageous. I mean, they had no freedom. But still, women were made to feel deprived if they weren't married despite all of these restrictions. They were told that marriage was the only possible destiny for a woman. One Rabbi said in the Talmud "Women exist to bring up our children and keep us from sin."

In the matter of divorce, Jewish law gives the woman few options. Since marriage contracts are enforced by men, then the men decide whether to grant a divorce or not. The woman has no say if the man wants a divorce and she doesn't or if the woman wants a divorce and the man doesn't. So, if the woman is really, really, unhappy then she would just have to stay unhappy. A women cannot initiate a divorce. If the woman is infertile, the Talmud states that the man MUST divorce her but yet if the man is infertile, the woman may not sue for a divorce. Also in the case of adultery, it was a cause for divorce if a women committed it, but it was okay if the man did it as long as the other woman wasn't married. And yet Orthodox women insist that Jewish law doesn't favor men!

In the 12th century in Egypt, Jewish women worked as midwives, doctors, seamstresses, spinners, and brokers for produce. They even taught small children. In Germany, Holland and Italy in the middle ages, there were many women in the wealthy merchant class who had their own businesses. Also, women got a better understanding of who they were supposed to be when a very popular book came out that was called T'sena Ure'ena which meant "come out and see". This book gave women and other uneducated Jews knowledge about their place in the Jewish community.

At the end of the 18th century a group came along, called the Maskilim (or the Enlighteners) who were influenced by western European ideas and who were the first to protest against women's treatment in Jewish society. I think that is really surprising because men were most always against women's rights and freedom.

There are many different views on women's role in Judaism. In Conservative Judaism, there is no one general practice. In most congregations, women are accorded the same rights and privileges as men. But 17% of Conservative congregations do not allow women to publicly read the Torah, be part of the minyan, be called to the Torah, serve as a cantor, serve as a rabbi, or serve as the representative of the congregation.

The Reform view is that there is equality of men and women. It allows women to be both rabbis and cantors, it allows them to be part of the minyan, they can initiate a divorce, and can have a berit-equivalent ceremony (a bris but without the circumcision) for girls.

The Orthodox view is that basically women stay at home and men go to work, study, and go to the synagogue. The ordination of women as rabbis began in 1972 in Reform Judaism and in 1984 in Conservative Judaism...

I visited the Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center to see the "too Jewish?" exhibit which had paintings, sculptures, installations, performances, and videos that explored aspects of what it means to be Jewish in America. One specific exhibit "The Liberation of God" by Helene Aylon was especially interesting to me. In her exhibit, she highlighted, in pink, parts in lots of different copies of the Bible (only the first five books of Moses) that were patriarchal and misogynistic or that had violence and cruelty. I was so amazed that there were so many pink highlighted parts. For example, Genesis, chapter 3 verse 16: "Unto the women He said: 'I will greatly multiply thy pain and thy travail; in pain thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." She pointed out places "Where only the father's name is recorded as the parent who begot the offspring.", which is very impossible if you think about it. This also is saying that women (even though they gave birth to the baby) aren't important, men get all the credit, and women get forgotten. She also mentioned that the tenth commandment made women feel less important than men. It says "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's house; thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor's." This is like saying that a woman is equal to an ox and that she is a possession of man.

Some women, because of their strong feminist ideas and the restricted role of women in the shul, reject and refuse to practice Jewish rituals any longer.

However, others decide that they want to be both religious Jews and feminists. This is very hard because other feminists criticize them for practicing any organized religion (they think that it's patriarchal) and Jews criticize them as not being really Jewish. Jewish feminists care a lot about being both Jewish and feminists. They ask "Why have women been excluded from certain rituals?", they exclaim "How dare men define Judaism for us!", and they want to redefine Judaism from a women's point of view. They are trying to change some sexist language in prayers, the hagadah, etc. In one prayer, they say "We will bless the source of life", instead of calling God "Him". They are also trying to take part in rituals, come up with new rituals, and use the symbols (like the talis, yarmulke, etc.) that only men are traditionally allowed to wear.

In 1988,a group of women came to pray with a Torah at Jerusalem's Western Wall and were cursed, and had chairs thrown at them. Israel's Supreme Court told them that "the voice of the woman is lewd." These women formed a group called the International Women of the Wall who are fighting for the right to pray as a group at the Wall...

As I was researching and writing about the feminists, I started to realize that what these women do is very similar to what our Sholem Community does. We change our language, create our own ceremonies, don't go by the Torah, make people feel comfortable with their sense of Jewishness, and most of all make people feel equal (men and women). For example, with the song "Hee-nay ma-tov", Sholem changed the words of the Psalm,"Hinay mah tov u'manayim, shevet akhim gam yakhad"- See how good and how pleasant it is when brothers sit together as one, to "Shevet ameem gam yakhad"- when peoples sit together as one...