Peacemaker: Its funny how an answer like that (which I assume is supposed to buttress the practices in question) actually undermines the continuity of our traditions. When a practice is explained and justified as HALACHA, it is very difficult to justify a change in that practice, no matter how pressing the reasons for change may be. But when you go and say “tradition alone suffices” and claim the practice warrants no halachic justification, you open it up to change because minhag and tradition CAN be changed when there are pressing reasons for doing so. For example, if 90% of frum girls would be expected to go OTD because they are not counted for a minyan or allowed to daven for the tzibur, then if these restrictions were mere minhag, there may be some justification for a posek to allow a change in order to prevent the takala of 100s of young girls leaving the fold (eis laasos). If the practice is justified in halachic terms, however, it is much, much more difficult to justify any change, regardless of the consequences.
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