by Shaul Kelner
Several years ago, a friend at a Jewish feminist organization asked if I would consider joining some of my male colleagues in making a pledge: to not participate on all-male panels and to make the inclusion of at least one woman a condition of my involvement. The idea was to enlist men as allies in the ongoing struggle for gender equity in Jewish communal life.
I had conducted research on gender and power in Jewish organizations, some of it for the group that was now making the request, Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community. I knew the hard figures about the glass ceilings, pay differentials, and devaluing of women’s achievements in the synagogues, day schools, community centers, federations and agencies I had studied. Agreeing to the request was therefore easy, and I quickly responded, “I’m in.”
It was clear to me that the issues that my friend, Rabbi Joanna Samuels, was raising, were important ones: Whose voices are given platforms in the Jewish public square? What message does an all-male panel send about who is valued, who is worth listening to, who has something important to contribute to a conversation?
As I considered these questions, I recalled a situation a few years back when a Jewish think tank convened a “visioning the future” conference to which they had invited not a single woman. More like visioning the 1950s, my fellow sociologist, Steven M. Cohen, and I wrote at the time in an op-ed that took the organizers to task. But words after the fact are not enough to really solve the problem. Better I and like-minded men should speak up beforehand, and not allow our presence in public forums to legitimize women’s forced absence from them.
When event planners are faced with criticism over lack of female representation in their speaker line-ups, a common dodge is to claim that they are under pressure to bring in “big names” and that these are just more likely to be men. But there is a circular logic here. Someone becomes a “draw” when they have appeared in many public settings, when they are invited to be on important committees, and when they are invited to address large convenings. The absence of women from these settings is thus a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Since accepting AWP’s challenge and making a pledge two years ago not to participate in all-male panels, I have had the opportunity to invoke the pledge in a number of professional and communal settings. (Not too many, thankfully. That is a good sign.)
I cannot speak for the dozens of other Jewish male leaders, scholars and activists who also made the pledge, but in my case, push has never actually come to shove. My convictions have not yet been tested. I never had to refuse participation because, so far, not once have the conveners failed to “find” a woman who can participate. Generally, the conversations have gone something like this:
“Prof. Kelner, will you teach at our all-night Shavuot study session?”
“Sure. I’d be happy to. Who else is on the program?”
“Abe, Isaac and Jake”
“You couldn’t find any women to teach? Look, I’d love to join the program, but I’ve made a pledge not to participate in all-male panels. And anyway, do you really want to send the message that there are no qualified women?”
“Wow! You’re right. Thank you. We’re going to fix this.”
“Do that, and I’ll be happy to participate.”
Perhaps I would encounter more resistance were my response seen as an idiosyncratic choice. Presenting it as a “pledge” – a commitment that I have made and that other men have made, too – gives it a certain force that it might otherwise not have.
As it stands, the responses I get from program organizers usually include some expression of thanks. People want to do the right thing. When I mention the pledge, it is a values-clarifying moment that typically leads people to realize that they care about gender equity and need to act on these values. Significantly, when the same conveners have invited me back a second time, the problem of all-male panels has not repeated.
Many men, particularly of my generation, have already committed themselves not to speak on panels and in programs that exclude women’s voices. Hopefully, more and more will use their influence in this way.
The pledge is a mitzvah of egalitarianism. And as the sages teach, mitzvah gorreret mitzvah, one mitzvah leads to another. Together, we can help build a community that values men and women equally as leaders and as teachers of the Jewish people.
(If you are interested in learning more about this pledge, please contact Advancing Women Professionals and the Jewish Community at info@advancingwomen.org)
Shaul Kelner teaches sociology and Jewish studies at Vanderbilt University. He is the author of Tours That Bind: Diaspora, Pilgrimage and Israeli Birthright Tourism.
What a brilliant, timely, and simple intervention to effectuate tikkun of women’s exclusion from Jewish public dialoge and teaching. Thank you, Shaul, yishar kokhekha and ken yirbu…may many others join you!
A fine idea, Shaul! How about another pledge: Requiring that Jewish Republicans also be included in all panel discussions?
Do the thing right and do the right thing …
I’m a girl and I do not feel really concerned by what you wrote. How ?
Let me try to explain what I perceived from your article.
The whole challenge of a jewish person is to live in consistency with what Tora requires from us, to live EMET. Instead of focusing on our own problematic, it’s always easier to see aside.
What do I mean ? Let me explain …
1-When you speak about “equal”, it’s based on the assumption that you are comparing two things that are comparable. First issue – who said man and woman have to be compared ? They are 2 different entities, so to compare them is like to compare apples and oranges. Then to say there is a mitsva of being equal ? Where in Tora did you find that ? Since in fact Tora is based on the diversity and the difference !! When God created Man and Woman, He created two different entities …
2-Mitsva – is coming in from the root in hebrew “tsavta”, meaning the link. Which link ? Link between me and God. Link between me and the Tora.
3-In life, it’s every day a challenge. “Yetser lev haadam ra mineourav” – Everyone feels involved in his heart, and feels a duty to serve God, to perfect, to overcome his Yetzer Hara, to cancel his will towards “someone” above us. This feeling creates in us a conflict: the enjoying of the immediate includiding side effects, or retained for the long-term happiness.
The real jewish living Tora raises the inconsistency because he believes that the world will drift if this prohibits or custom was opening. The other wishes to highlight that the world is already runaway, => so no more stress, we will be able to reach almost the forbidden, then fall into it.
An objective man feels how the door of the tumble is always between-open under his feet.
Let me share an example to image that idea: the Tsniout.
A sentence true: The Tsniout it’s not a question of centimeters of skirt, or a uniform. One that seeks to highlight himself manages to catch the eye even Djellaba etc.. While a woman in pants is often very modest, without attracting the eye of men at all.
Now look at how these phrases are used by two people with such opposite motivations:
a – One uses the data to motivate women to go ahead, do more – and sometimes, not to criticize those who are less compliant
b – While the other uses it to gently break down barriers, and ultimately provide kosher stamps to all kinds of dirty relaxation.
While reading your article, this is what came to my mind … do we look for real Tora implementation, or do we look for our own self satisfaction implementation ?
Everyone has the right to express, but I supplicate you not to call that a Mitsva. Since “Avera Goreret Avera” … what is the intention behind the act ? and you will know the result that will come out …
And if your statement is Emet, so please let’s find the root of that type of situation in the Tora.
The tora does not avoid at all for women to be leaders, but to create issues where they are not …
How about this?: Quality before equality. If the three best speakers are women, great. If they’re men, gay, straight, black, Sephardic, etc., great also.
Yasher Koach, Shaul! As a man & fellow Jewish professional, I’m with you!
Curious Shaul, what the reaction to our local (and popular) Rosh Hodesh group, or the teen “Its a Girls Thing” or the women’s book group my wife loves would be if invited speakers took your myopic approach and insisted on this kind of faux gender equality.
I’d suggest you poke around at parts of the Jewish community where women are flourishing (and there are plenty) and where men are disappearing (far to much of the Jewish mosaic) and reconsider your view – I’d like to think that my young daughter’s interest in a career in science or pursuit of Talmud study is because she is darn god at it, not because someone insists a girl be included.