In Chapter 6 (“The Fractious Canon”) of my Come Now, Let Us Reason Together I examine the Torah’s treatment of gender roles. While noting that this text’s cultural setting in the late Bronze Age requires men to hold leadership roles, I describe numerous instances in which women justifiably act contrary to their husbands or leaders’ intent but, as confirmed in the text, in accordance with God’s will.
Primary examples are Sarah’s demand that Hagar and Ismael be expelled and Rivka’s tricking Isaac into conferring his covenantal blessing on Jacob rather than Esau. Another key example is the Israelite women’s refusal, in contrast to their male counterparts, to give Aharon their gold for the construction of the Golden Calf. There are no parallels to such narratives in the sacred texts of Christianity or Islam.
As I conclude (p.109), “The point of these examples is not to argue that the world of the Torah comports with modern feminist ideals, but to not that rabbis and scholrs are able to cite these precedents in arguing for a more egalitarian Judaism that has, outside of insular Orthodox communities, largely prevailed.” Here is a link to a short video I created depicting Sarah’s conflict with Avraham.