Four Paradigms of Legal Change: American Conservative Halachic Rulings on Women’s Roles in Synagogue Practice

Conservative Judaism in North America has undergone significant changes over the last seventy years regarding the issue of women’s roles within the synagogue. A review of different halachic responsa addressing women’s participation in three central functions of public prayer—receiving aliyot to the Torah, leading public prayer, and being counted in the prayer quorum, the minyan—reveals four different paradigms of legal change within the Conservative Movement and allows us to recognize certain trends throughout time.