Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women's Ordination, 1889-1985

Pamela Nadell is a historian of American Jewish life, and this academic book, published by Beacon Press, traces the history of the movement to ordain women as rabbis in the United States from its earliest advocates through the actual ordinations that began in the 1970s, drawing on archival records and interviews with the women involved. Its strength is documentary depth on a specific and well defined historical question, tracing named individuals and institutional decisions across a century rather than offering a vague general narrative. Its limit is geographic and denominational focus, it is specifically a history of the American movement, so questions about women's ordination debates in other countries or within denominations Nadell does not cover need a separate source.