Patrilineal Descent the GENDER IMBALANCE in AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE
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MAURICE AND MARILYN COHEN CENTER FOR MODERN JEWISH STUDIES and the HADASSAH-BRANDEIS INSTITUTE Matrilineal ascent/ Patrilineal descent THE GENDER IMBALANCE IN AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE Sylvia Barack Fishman, Ph.D. and Daniel Parmer, MA Brandeis University, 2008 This research and publication have been supported through a grant from The Harold Grinspoon Foundation Gender Imbalance in American Jewish Life ii Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures ........................................................................................... iii Introduction: What Is Gender Imbalance, and Why Is It a Problem? ...................... 1 Is Feminization of Religion “Natural” or Inevitable? ................................................... 2 The Problem Is “Patrilineal Descent”—Not “Matrilineal Ascent” ................................ 4 The Other Jewish Gender Imbalance: Traditional Exclusion of Women ....................... 6 Studying Gender Imbalance and Its Implications ......................................................... 7 Triangulating Numbers, Interviews, and Cultural Context............................................ 9 One: Distinctive Jewish Gender Roles and How They Changed .............................. 12 Historical Jewish Societies Reserved Public Religious Roles for Men ....................... 14 Women as Historical Brokers for Modernization ....................................................... 17 The 1960s Challenge Middle Class Mores and American Jewish Patterns .................. 20 Women Recent Brokers for Jewish Rituals, Ceremonies, Liturgical Skills ................. 22 Cultural Explorations of Jewishness Often Led by Women, or by Men Trained in Orthodox Settings ...................................................................................................... 27 Two: Gendered Thinking About Judaism in Jewish Homes ..................................... 31 Relationship with Organized Religion Varies by Marriage Type ................................ 34 Women More Likely to Think Religion Is Necessary................................................. 36 Men More Likely to See Religion as Unnecessary ..................................................... 37 Who Makes Decisions About Your Child’s Religion? ............................................... 42 Beyond the Judeo-Christian Blend: How Unique Is Judaism? .................................... 44 How Important Is Being Jewish to You? .................................................................... 44 Three: Doing Jewish—Synagogue and Ceremony as the “World of Our Mothers” 47 Religious Observances in Inmarried Families Reflect Judaism and Gender ................ 52 Gender Affects Ritual Observances in Intermarried Families ..................................... 53 Brit Milah in Inmarried and Intermarried Jewish Households .................................... 56 Four: Peoplehood, Social Networks, Israel Attachments........................................... 57 Ethnic Social Capital ................................................................................................. 57 Denominational Differences in Jewish Social Capital ................................................ 61 Goals for Raising Children and Brokering Jewish Family Connections ...................... 64 Jewish Particularism and American Diversity ............................................................ 66 Conclusion: Engendering Jewish Connections ........................................................... 68 Growing Evidence for Gendered Needs ..................................................................... 71 Major Research Findings ............................................................................................ 75 Women ...................................................................................................................... 75 Men ........................................................................................................................... 76 Men and Women ....................................................................................................... 76 Research and Policy Implications .............................................................................. 77 iii Fishman and Parmer, 2008 List of Tables and Figures Table 1: Gender differences among Jews in 51 Nations ................................................... 3 Figure 1: Inmarried Jewish Parents by Importance of Religion “Very Important” ................. 40 Figure 2: Intermarried Jewish Parents by Importance of Religion “Very Important” ............. 41 Figure 3 Inmarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Primary Decision Maker of Child’s Religion ............................................................................................. 42 Figure 4: Intermarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Primary Decision Maker of Child’s Religion ............................................................................................. 43 Figure 5: Inmarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Importance of Being Jewish “Very Important” ............................................................................................... 45 Figure 6: Intermarried Jewish Parents by Importance of Being Jewish .................................. 46 Figure 7: Inmarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Frequency of Synagogue Attendance “Weekly of More” .................................................................... 50 Figure 8: Inmarried Jewish Parents by Frequency of Synagogue Attendance “Never” .......... 51 Figure 9: Intermarried Jewish Parents by Frequency of Synagogue Attendance .................... 52 Figure 10: Inmarried Jewish Parents’ Ritual Observance by Affiliation and Gender ............. 54 Figure 11: Intermarried Jewish Parents’ Ritual Observance by Wing of Judaism and Gender .................................................................................................................... 55 Figure 12: Intermarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Brit Milah for Male Child .................................................................................................................... 55 Figure 13: Inmarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Proportion of Jewish Friends ............................................................................................................... 59 Figure 14: Intermarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Proportion of Jewish Friends ............................................................................................................... 60 Figure 15: Inmarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Ever Been to Israel ...... 62 Figure 16: Inmarried Jewish Parents in Current Wing of Judaism by Care About Israel “Very Important”.......................................................................................................... 63 Gender Imbalance in American Jewish Life 1 Introduction: What Is Gender Imbalance, and Why Is It a Problem? hree decades ago writer William lower rates of ethnic and religious social Novak panicked American capital than Jewish women, as women with gloomy predictions characterized by involvement with T 1 of The Great American Man Shortage. distinctively Jewish activities and A few years later British feminist connections with Jewish social psychologist Lynne Segal asked, Is the networks. Ethnic social capital—defined Future Female?2 Their titles eerily either by non-religious, secular, or by foreshadowed the fact that today religious cultural activities and American Jewish boys and men have networks—characterizes American fewer connections to Jews and Judaism Jewish women far more than men. Men than girls and women in almost every are less likely to value Jewishness in the venue and in every age, from school age United States and worldwide as a children through the adult years. The distinctive culture, and less likely to visit descent of male interest is evident not Israel. Jewish women more than Jewish only in domestic Judaism, as expected, men have mostly Jewish friends and but also in public Judaism, religious describe themselves as affiliated with leadership, and secular ethnic one of the wings of American Judaism. attachments. In Fall 2005 women Jewish men have weaker family ties than outnumbered men two to one in the Jewish women, and are less likely to stay entering rabbinical class in the Reform in close touch with Jewish family movement’s Hebrew Union College- members than Jewish women. Jewish Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), men are less likely to self-identify with a for example.3 Nationally, girls and wing of Judaism, and far more than women outnumber men in weekly non- Jewish women call themselves “secular, Orthodox worship services, in adult “cultural,” or “just Jewish.” Men invest education classes, in volunteer less of their human capital into leadership positions, and in Jewish Jewishness, as we will shortly discuss. cultural events. Only in lucrative, high This is a matter of deep concern, because status executive positions in the Jewish minority groups with high amounts of communal world do men outnumber ethnic capital are much more successful women.4 at transmitting their culture to the next Perhaps most disturbingly, Jewish generation. men rank lower than Jewish women in The majority of American Jews secular ethnic, social, family or espouse equality as an important value, peoplehood connections as well. As we but Jewish life today is not gender equal. will show, Jewish