Purim is amazing in terms of the importance it grants to women in leadership positions. So I guess it only normal for me to ask, so where are our Esther’s today? Sadly, in the Jewish community today there remains a terrible lack of women in major leadership positions. There are a number of organizations working on this issue (most notably, of course, is Shifra Bronznik’s important initiative AWP, which has been working on this issue since its founding in 1995).

I hope they can fix the problem, because if you try to think of the 10–make it even 20–most important voices in Jewish life today, you’d more often than not be hard-pressed to find more than one or two female names to put on the list. Put another way, if you had to headline a 1,000-person event with a woman Jewish speaker who was active in Jewish life you would have a tough time coming up with more than three names who could hold the room. No, I am not in the mood to get into a game of list-making, but truth be told, where are today’s Esthers? And if they are out there, where have we gone wrong in promoting them?

Much of the problem, it seems, is based on a vicious cycle where women are not given prominent leadership roles because they do not occupy prominent positions of authority. But they don’t occupy prominent positions of authority because they don’t occupy prominent positions of authority already. I know there is a circular logic here, but that’s the point.

In the Orthodox community the issue is very clear and obvious. Aside from cultural pressures to get married and have kids, women are not given the title rabbi (Orthodox rabbis would do well to grant more legitimacy to the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, and in particular Tova Hartman, who is fast emerging as a very significant voice in Orthodox circles), but even so, in the Conservative world only a handful of women are rabbis of prominent congregations. There has yet to be a woman in the head of any major American Jewish organization (Hadassah and AWP not included… by the way, all one needs to do is look at how great a job Hadassah has done over the years to realize the need for more women in leadership positions).

Some have said that the lack of women leadership is a matter of time and patience, getting beyond the glass ceiling. Perhaps they are correct, but I think it’s probably more than just that. What? I don’t know; any thoughts?