Recently, over the past few decades, the role of women in Judaism has improved significantly. The ripple effect of the women's rights movement allowed Jewish women to press for widespread reform of Jewish law. Since biblical times, women in general were placed on a lower level than men, and this was no different for Jewish women. However, great strides have been made over the past century to elevate the status of Jewish women in the public sphere as well as in the privacy of their homes. The depreciation of women and their overall inferior position in society can be attributed to androcentric interpretations. from the Hebrew Bible, particularly the story of Adam and Eve. Throughout history, the story of Adam and Eve has been used by men to highlight the inherent evil of women by pinning Adam and Eve's eventual expulsion from heaven on Eve's neck. Eve has long been accused of being expelled from Heaven and, indeed, women, even to this day, are described as the "gateway to sin." The Torah, in general, does not really improve the situation of women. Many Jewish feminists argue that much of the misogynistic views of men come from God's exclusivity as a man. Judith Plaskow says: “There is the fact that we address God as him. And it’s not just that we use the masculine pronoun in the absence of gender-neutral pronouns – we imagine it in masculine terms. He is therefore King, Lord, Shepard, Father, etc. She goes on to mention the incredulous arguments against the ordination of women. Arguments that assert things like because a rabbi or minister is in fact a divine figure, and since God is used in exclusively male terms, it is not appropriate for a woman to play a role in the clergy. When we examine Judaism, it... ... middle of paper...... one of its modern forms. For many feminists, until a complete transformation of Judaism and its fundamental tenets is achieved, the struggle to define the role of women within the religion is far from over.BibliographyPlaskow, Judith. Essays on feminism, Judaism and sexual ethics, 1972-2003. Boston: Beacon Press, 2005. Print. Umansky, Ellen. “Feminism in Judaism.” Feminism and world religions. Ed. Arvind Sharma and Katherine Young. Albany: SUNY Press, 1999. 179-213. Print.Rabbi Fine, David. “Women and the Minyan”. Journal of Conservative Judaism (2002): Print. Waxman, Ruth. “Women as prayer leaders and their role in community prayer.” Judaism 42.4 (1993): printed. Golinkin, David. “The Participation of Jewish Women in Public Rituals and Torah Study 1845--2010.” » Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's and Gender Studies 21 (2011): 44-66. Print.