uppety women

the following is a teshuvah from the israeli webste moreshet that came to my attention via my chevruta's mother in law. the qquestion was two part. the more eye-catching part, with which i will not deal now, is whether single women should be allowed or encouraged to use mikvaot. the firts question listed, though, is whether anything can be done for women who are embarassed at having the mikvah atendant check them prior to tevilah. The questioner suggested that the mkvah attendant be abolished entirely, which has halakhic problems, but the basic question re: inspection still stands. The answer is basically that there isn't an actual halakhic need for the pre-immersion inspection (rather, the woman must do it herself and hta's enough), but there is a halakhic need for an attendant during immersion itself. In any event, one part of the answer really struck me, which I have bolded in the translation below:

(ps, I know it's considered impolite to talk about hilkhot niddah in public, but 1- this is really interesting and 2- its not exactly lewd or salacious, so forgive me...)

להלן קטעים מתשובתו של הרב יעקב אריאל, הי"ו, רבה הראשי של רמת גן:

"...הבלניות רואות את עצמן כשליחות קדושות שכל האחריות מוטלת על כתפיהן, ולכן כל הידור וכל חומרה נוגעת לליבן. הן עוסקות במלאכה זו במסירות נפש, בלילות שבת וחג, בשעות מאוחרות, בשכר זעום, וקשה לשכנע אותן שתנחנה את הטובלות לטבול לפי הבנתן.
עם זאת, יש צורך הכרחי בהשגחה על הטובלת שכל שערה יכנס לתוך המים, בפרט לנשים ששערן ארוך. זו כבר לא חומרה אלא דין, ובלי השגחה יש לחשוש שהטבילה לא עלתה.
אפשר להגיע להבנה בין הטובלות לבלניות על כך שהן תיכנסנה רק כאשר הטובלת כבר בתוך המים, ורק תוודא ששערה נכנס כולו למים. אך כאמור, רוב הבלניות לא מוכנות לוותר על אחריות שליחותן, ולא אחת נתקלתי אישית בסירוב של הבלניות לקבל את דעת הרבנים..."

"The attendants see themselves as holy messengers, with all the responsibility on their shoulders, and therefore every embelishment (of the mitsvah) and stricture touches their heart. They engage in this occupation with self-sacrifice, on sabbath and festival evenings, at late hours, with a pitiful wage, and it is difficult to convince them that they should allow the immersers to immerse according to their (own) understanding. Given this, there is a compelling need for supervision over the imersers that all her (sic) hair should enter into the water, especially for women with long hair. This is already not a stringency but the law, and without oversight it is possible to suspect that the immersion did not count.
It is possible to arrive at an understanding between the immersers and the attendants such that they will enter only once the immersers are already in the water, and will only certify that her hair all went into the water.
But, as has been said, most of the attendants are not ready to give up on the responsibility of their messenger-ness, and not (just) once have I personally encountered the refusal of the attendants to accept the opinion of the rabbis."

בשולי הדברים: נשים רשאיות לתבוע את צניעותן ופרטיותן, וכפסיקת הרב – הבלניות מופקדות על כשרות הטבילה של כל שערן בלבד. כדאי לבוא ערב אחד ולשוחח עם הבלנית (לא בליל הטבילה, כשכולן לחוצות) ופעמים ששיחה זו עולה יפה.
כל טוב, ויישר כוח על המכתב

Can we imagine a situation in which the rav ha-machshir of a restaurant says "you know, the mashgiach just won't listen to me, what can I do?"
Perhaps this is because I am a woman, but it really strikes me that a lot of the minhagei ta'ut that are allowed to live are those generally practiced by women (eg, excessive pesah cleaning, obsession with meat/milk separation in situations where there is no possible transfer of taam, etc...) Rabbis just can't convince women that they're wrong. Is it because traditionally women are not trained to listen to the sort of (logical/talmudic/hairsplitting) arguments rabbis are trained to give? (Most rabbis can give a touchy-feely argument when necessary, so that can't be all...)
There's also the sense that this particular rabbi, at least, is only half-heartedly opposed to the practices that make women feel uncomfortable - he does call it holy work - in which case maybe he didn't come down so strongly against it...
There's probably some feminist reading here of how women have power to define their own cultural spheres over the objections of the rabbis, except that feminists hate mikvah attendnats so perhaps this reading has not been actualized... ;)
Anyhow, I thought it was fascinating.