Female Literacy

[aurora_nebulosa]

I am wondering whether women of either the Jewish or Christian faiths were permitted and/or able to read during biblical times? Is there any explicit or indeed implicit evidence (preferably in the Scriptures but even extra-biblically) that Jewish and/or Christian women were permitted to/could read?

Comments

[cordilleran2]

It's implied in some of the letters of Paul that, at the very least, some women could read.

Whether they were actually reading the text of the OT is unknown, but considering that some of these women were leaders of incipient churches, it can be inferred that, at the very least, they were reading his letters, probably aloud to the congregation.