Recently, in recent decades, the role of women in Judaism has improved greatly. The ripple effect of the Women's Rights Movement gave Jewish women the power to push for widespread reform of Jewish law. Since biblical times, women in general were held to a lower standard than men, and this was no different for Jewish women. However, great strides have been made in the past century to elevate the status of Jewish women in the public sphere and in the privacy of their homes. The devaluation of women and their overall inferior position in society can be attributed to androcentric interpretations. of the Hebrew Bible, especially the story of Adam and Eve. Throughout history, the story of Adam and Eve has been used by men to highlight the evil inherent in women, pinning Adam and Eve's eventual expulsion from Heaven on Eve's neck. Eve has long been blamed for the expulsion from Heaven and indeed women, even today, are described as the “door of sin”. The Torah, in general, doesn't exactly alleviate the situation of women. Many Jewish feminists argue that much of the misogynistic views of men stem from God's exclusivity as male. Judith Plaskow says, “There is the fact that we address God as he does. And it's not just that we use the male pronoun in the absence of neutral ones: we imagine it in male terms. So he is King, Lord, Shepherd, Father, etc. He goes on to mention the incredulous arguments against the ordination of women. Arguments that stated things like that a rabbi or minister is in fact a divine figure, and since God is used in exclusively male terms, it is inappropriate for a woman to take on a role in the clergy. When you look at Judaism, there is... ... middle of paper ... one of its modern forms.” For many feminists, until an entire transformation of Judaism and its fundamental principles is implemented, the struggle to define the role of women within the religion is far from over. Bibliography Plaskow, 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 Minians." Conservative Judaism Journal (2002): Print.Waxman, Ruth. "Women as prayer leaders and their role in community prayer". Judaism 42.4 (1993): Print.Golinkin, David. “Jewish Women's Participation in Public Ritual and Torah Study 1845-2010.” Nashim: A Journal of Jewish Women's Studies & Gender Issues 21 (2011): 44-66. Press.