Interesting article from Bloomberg on the statements of the Agudah and the RCA, and their respective purposes:
The RCA knows that some moderate or liberal Orthodox institutions have been hiring women to give sermons, provide rabbinic legal advice and teach students. The goal of its resolution is to try to reverse or hold back this process of gradual normalization.
The sociological consequences of this move matter. The goal of open Orthodoxy is precisely to find space in the limited pluralism of Orthodox belief and practice — to achieve a state of play where Orthodox Jews could self-define as ultra-Orthodox, modern Orthodox or open Orthodox. Open Orthodoxy self-consciously wants to avoid becoming a separate movement, the better to achieve incremental change toward equality for women.
The efforts at line-drawing show that the other branches of Orthodoxy are worried. The modern Orthodox, in particular, find themselves caught between the egalitarianism and feminism that are distinctly modern, and the unapologetic position of ultra-Orthodoxy, with its clearly separate spheres for men and women.