Q&A: Religious Zionists and Their Attitude Toward Women
Religious Zionists and Their Attitude Toward Women
Question
Following another discussion in which you hinted that there is a problematic attitude among the Religious Zionist community toward women (link below) — I very much agreed with your complaint that sometimes you waste time on irrelevant questions. I too, like you, think we need to be very matter-of-fact.
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Therefore I’d be glad if we focused on the issue of the Religious Zionist community’s attitude toward women and your hint that it is problematic.
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So the question is this:
Do you have data that show this?
For example, is it known that the divorce rate in the Religious Zionist sector is significantly higher compared to the secular or traditional public?
Or is it known that in the Religious Zionist public there are more complaints of battered women, or God forbid do you know of more women being murdered within this public?
Do you know of clear data showing that in the Religious Zionist public there are necessarily more women who suffer sexual abuse?
Any other relevant data?
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For me, answering these questions counts as a substantive discussion, not general (and meaningless) statements like “they don’t treat women nicely.”
What is that based on?
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And please, no isolated incidents that prove nothing, like the letter sent 15 years ago by a group of a few individual rabbis.
Please bring clear data and statistics in order to determine that in the Religious Zionist community women are not treated well.
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For reference, here is the earlier discussion for anyone interested:
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https://mikyab.net/%D7%A9%D7%95%D7%AA/%d7%94%d7%93%d7%aa%d7%99%d7%99%d7%9d-%d7%95%d7%94%d7%97%d7%a8%d7%93%d7%99%d7%9d-%d7%91%d7%98%d7%95%d7%a4-%d7%a9%d7%9c-%d7%94%d7%94%d7%aa%d7%a0%d7%93%d7%91%d7%95%d7%aa-%d7%95%d7%94%d7%9e%d7%95%D7%A1/
Answer
I’m sorry to take the wind out of your burning sails, but if you want to conduct a substantive discussion, you should apply a bit of reading comprehension. First, I was talking about the conservative segment, not about the Religious Zionist community in general. When I wrote about attitude toward women, I was referring to women’s status in that wing, not to abuse. For example, how much space they are given in the synagogue, in public roles, and of course the attitude toward them in the religious courts.
Thank you for listening.
As someone who has worked in this field for many years (though I don’t have studies), the answer is that these are low percentages relative to the secular population, and also lower relative to the Haredi population — both with respect to divorce and with respect to domestic violence.