Women

 R’ Samson Raphael Hirsch On the Spiritual Equality of the Male and Female 

“While fully appreciating the special and deeply implanted characteristics of the female sex, the Sages also attribute to it complete spiritual and intellectual equality with the male. In the very words with which the formation of man by the hands of God is proclaimed, האדם את אלהים’ ה וייצר ,they find an indication that the formation of both male and female is on the same footing. לחוה יצירה לאדם יצירה) Genesis R. 14).” “The Jewish Woman,” Judaism Eternal II, p. 95 

“Right from the beginning God reached ‘mankind’ male and female, both equally godly, of equal worth, neither more in the likeness of God than the other, both given the same blessing by God, both together given the name ‘Adam’” (Commentary on Genesis 5:2)

 “In the word איש and אשה lay the guarantee for the equality in rank and mutually complementing calling of Man and Woman. As long as man and woman were איש and אשה there was no need for man to be emancipated from woman nor woman from man, neither could make the other into a slave nor yet into a god or goddess. The first who altered this designation ─ as indeed our sages remark, in no other language are man and woman designated by words coming from the same root and so regarded from the same trend of thought ─ brought it about that one man would yoke his woman to the plough while the other would throw himself at her feet.” (Commentary on Genesis 11:7) 

On shelo asani isha 

“This is not a prayer of thanks that God did not make us heathens, slaves or women. Rather, it calls upon us to contemplate the task which God has imposed upon us by making us free Jewish men, and to pledge ourselves to do justice to this mission. These three aspects of our own status impose upon us duties much more comprehensive than those required of the rest of mankind. And if our women have a smaller number of מצות to fulfill than men, they know that the tasks which they must discharge as free Jewish women are no less in accordance with the will and desire of God than are those of their brothers.” (Hirsch Siddur, p. 13