Were women required to hear and learn the Torah in ancient Israel?

Yes — and Moses says so in plain terms. When he commands the public Torah-reading assembly in Deuteronomy 31, he names four groups who must attend: men, women, children, and sojourners. Then he gives four purpose verbs that apply to all of them: hear, learn, fear, and observe.

"Assemble the people — the men and the women and the little ones and your sojourner who is within your gates — so that they may hear and so that they may learn and fear Yahweh your God." — Deuteronomy 31:12

Every verb in that purpose clause — shama' (שָׁמַע, H8085), lamad (לָמַד, H3925), yare' (יָרֵא, H3372), shamar (שָׁמַר, H8104) — is third-person plural and applies to everyone named. Women are not carved out as an exception. They are listed first among the people, before children and sojourners.

And this wasn't just an aspiration that never got carried out. Three times across a thousand years of history, the text shows it happening exactly as commanded. Joshua "did not leave out a word of all that Moses had commanded" when he read the Torah — and the narrative makes a point of saying the women were there (Joshua 8:35). Centuries later, after the exile, Ezra assembled the people for Torah-reading and "the assembly, both men and women and all who could understand" stood and listened (Nehemiah 8:2).

The wisdom literature adds one more piece. Proverbs 1:8 tells a son to not forsake "the torah of your mother" (תּוֹרַת אִמֶּךָ) — using the same word (torah, H8451) used for the Law of Moses. And Proverbs 31:26 describes the valiant woman speaking with torat chesed — "the torah of kindness." Women don't just receive Torah in this picture. They teach it.

The question was never whether women were included under the obligation to hear and learn. The text settled that at Sinai.

For the full comparative table and the Decalogue's address to both parents, see the study on Men and Women Under Torah, section "The Shared Commands."