User:EvaSofie/sandbox

Education
The majority of the population of Jewish women in the Ottoman Empire came from Medieval Spain; thus the language they used traveled with them. Ladino was the primary language of Jewish women, while men spoke Hebrew. Women were educated mostly at home by their husbands in Jewish law, but men often lacked the motivation as most women were illiterate or learning took away time from children and household chores. The majority of the education women had was in household tasks. Since women were illiterate and weren't taught about the Jewish calendar, they had their own sense of time and place.

Appearance
Jewish women were conservatively dressed much like Moslems. When women went out in public, they covered themselves in a very large shawl that covered their whole body and wore a scarf on their heads. All women wore the same type of clothing but the quality of their clothing implied whether or not they were wed. Married women had higher quality clothing.

Women who worked were often not the breadwinners of their families but working out of necessity due to being widowed or simply needing the extra money.

Some women worked as healers. If a woman was ill (and common treatments were unsuccessful), a healer was hired to perform a ritual called indulco that involved the use of several substances including water, rosewater, honey, salt, and eggs. These women were popular in the Jewish community until they were banned by rabbis and public healthcare was established. Women also participated in a lot of philanthropy for the community. Their individuality came from their baked goods which they shared. Soup kitchens were stocked by more affluent women while breast milk was supplied by poorer women to infants who were orphaned or in need. They offered bread to people poorer than themselves as well as animals.

Women were judged by how they kept up the household. If they did everything that was expected of them with no complaints. did not ask for anything, and the home appeared clean and tidy, they would be known as a nikuchira, or a "good housewife who runs her home properly".

In the Jewish community the bath house was known as the mikveh.