For the source text click/tap here: Megillah 4
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Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi ruled: It is obligatory for women to hear the reading of the Megillah, because they benefited also by the same miracle (Haman’s decree to kill all the Jewish people included the women).
The Rishonim dispute whether a woman can read the Megillah and discharge the obligation for a man. Rashi (Eruchin 3a) maintains that she could and Tosfos cites a Behag that she cannot. There are those that explain the Behag that he holds that a woman is only obligated to hear the Megillah but not to read it. Rashi’s viewpoint is easily understood by the fact that the Gemora explicitly states that women are obligated in the reading of the Megillah.
We explore the history of halacha and its development as regards this issue as well as the relationship between Purim and Psalm 22.