Fundamentally Faithful: Presentation at the Choosing Limits, Limiting Choices: Women's Status and Religious Life Conference

Publication Date: March 2005

Publisher: Hadassah-Brandeis Institute

Author(s): Debra Kaufman; Michelle Friedman; Debbie Kram

Research Area: Culture and religion; Population and demographics; Social conditions

Keywords: Wellen Levine; Stephanie; Values; Culture

Type: Other

Coverage: United States

Abstract:

Speakers respond to the following prompt: "Please analyze the tension that women feel between their religious commitments and their personal, psychological, and professional lives. Why do religious feminists stay both religious and feminist? How do they do that? Why do some women reject feminism, at least in theory? How do they explain their lives to themselves?" Friedman speaks from her clinical experience and research as a psychiatrist, discussing the psychological factors that support traditional religious structures. Wellen Levine, a sociologist, shares her insights and observations from a year spent living among the teenage girls in the New York Lubavitch community. Kaufman focuses on 'baalot teshuva', Jewish-born women who join the Orthodox community as adults.