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March 17, 2000/10 Adar II, Vol. 52, No.28
Women lead men in adult Jewish study
JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
NEW YORK - At the burgeoning international network of a two-year Jewish study program, the Florence Melton Adult Mini-Schools, Jewish women comprise about 60 percent of the students.
Women also are approximately 60 percent at Me'ah, another long-term course involving Jewish history, texts and values that is offered in a growing number of communities around North America.
Clear away your stereotypes of Jewish men poring over religious texts while the women stay home for the cooking, child-rearing and candlelighting aspects of Jewish life. In what researchers are heralding as a profound cultural reversal, a new study released this week at a Brandeis University conference reveals that women are more likely than men to be engaged in adult Jewish learning.
The study, based on a national sample of 1,302 adults, is part of a larger research project on Jewish adult education being conducted by Hebrew University sociologist Steven Cohen and Aryeh Davidson, dean of the education school at the Conservative movement's Jewish Theological Seminary.
The gender gap is most dramatic among Jews who are religiously observant, but not Orthodox.
When ranked according to level of ritual observance, 57 percent of women who are very highly affiliated Jews study a moderate amount, compared with 45 percent of men.
There are few gender differences, however, among Orthodox Jews and Jews with low levels of affiliation, according to the study. Orthodox men and women both study Jewish topics a great deal (37 percent of men and 39 percent of women report high levels of Jewish study) while unaffiliated Jewish men and women both study Jewish topics very little (86 percent of men and 87 percent of women report low levels of Jewish study).
Indicating how women may influence the burgeoning field of adult Jewish education, the study also finds that women and men have different interests and motivation for enrolling in Jewish studies courses. For example, women tend to be more interested than men in learning about Jewish spirituality, ritual observance, Jewish values and Jewish art, while men express a greater interest in learning Talmud and Jewish history.
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