This month, for the first time, an employment conference was held for ultra-Orthodox women, representing a growing stratum of women with their own desires and needs, who are willing to take an independent and new path.
In terms of the ultra-Orthodox world, these are buds of revolution.
In the last decade, there has been a significant change in the status of ultra-Orthodox women, which has begun to spread in areas outside the home - higher education, creative circles, public activity and also in the labor market.
This change does not draw its strength from the feminist revolution, but in response to the worldview instilled by the late Rabbi Shach, who sees belonging to the world of Torah as the main aspiration of ultra-Orthodox men.
Ultra-Orthodox women are educated from an early age to bear the burden of earning a living, especially in teaching, but in the third millennium the demand for high-tech, accounting, economics and legal professions expanded, and women developed careers and held key positions in the civil service and the free market. After conquering degrees and overcoming the difficulties at home and abroad, they succeed in combining the sacred with the profane and maneuvering between the ultra-Orthodox street and the world beyond the walls. When the front is at the rear and the ultra-Orthodox woman is at the forefront, she will cultivate a career, claim conquered desires and fulfill hidden dreams, with a handsome salary on their side.
The status of the ultra-Orthodox woman has been reshaped, not because her livelihood depends on her and she is sitting on the budget tap at home, but because women in secular workplaces are exposed to a different way of life and a Western way of thinking.
This creates a gap between them and the man at home and exposes the children to a different culture.
More and more such women are advocating for fewer births with longer breaks between pregnancies.
Not to mention the division of roles within the home, which also takes a turn and may create problems of home peace.
The openness norms of ultra-Orthodox women and feminization processes may undermine the male monopoly in ultra-Orthodox society, and this is increasing as more ultra-Orthodox women emerge from the protective community space and integrate into general society.
However, the unemployment rates in the ultra-Orthodox male population are still significantly higher than the unemployment rates in the general population, and therefore the privilege of the ultra-Orthodox men to impose prohibitions and restrictions on the person who supports them is no longer a viable option.
And so, with a gnashing of teeth, with no choice agreement accompanied by thunderous silence, the ultra-Orthodox feminist revolution sets out.
In January 23 years ago, I was privileged to be among 31 youths who were drafted into the IDF as part of the first cycle of the Haredi Nahal, which allows them to serve on a combat track while maintaining the Haredi lifestyle.
This first swallow paved the way for tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox who have enlisted since then.
The women of the ultra-Orthodox revolution are also pioneers on another and no less important battlefield, and represent a significant phenomenon that will have an impressive presence in a decade or more.
Although the husband is not exempt from earning a living and there is still a long way to go for a reformed society, if the wife is already doomed to bear the burden, the sacred duty will become a springboard, precisely out of the unbearable heavy burden.
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