> MO’s claim to “need” this for their women – when no Orthodox women needed this
Somehow, before Chofetz Chaim and Gerer Rebbe endorsed BY – nobody was teaching women Chumash and Prikei Avos – or even reading Hebrew. And “nobody” includes Chofetz Chaim himself. In his writings in 1920s, I found a lot of laments about non-Orthodox and cultural schools for boys, and only several mentions of women’s education: one said “do not send girls to gymnasiums” (i.e. there were even no non-O schools to oppose, only Polish ones) – and no alternative suggested, just “do not send”, and then an article about halochos of mikva that he suggests that women who know how to read teach to those who do not. He is not suggesting teaching them to read … So, were you to live in his times, you would say “no orthodox women need this” – and you would be able to quote lots of rabbis to support your position.
As to Jewish women having great general education and knowing sciences and being doctors – being a “problem”: (1) of course, it is not, (2) even if you are successful in keeping “your women” away from the books, it is a reality that there are a lot of Jews already exposed to general culture and one should try to educate them in their Judaism. This was understood before R Soloveitchik. For example, Ponevezh Rav opened a school for girls in Ponevezh, Lithuania (1930s?) that out-competed a non-religious school by offering high-quality secular school. That is, local gvirim did not mind giving their girls Jewish education – but they wanted to first ensure genEd. Only combining them together worked.