In this thesis, I explore how the fight for increased gender equality in the rabbinate in the United States compared to this same push in France. I argue that America served as a blueprint for increased gender equality in Jewish life; in contrast to Jewish women in the United States, French Jewish women had a model, and this was very influential. It showed them how many avenues were open and what things could “be done.” However, French Jewish demands for equality have evolved differently from the American Jewish feminist movement due to differing characteristics in French society. Notably, the trajectory of France’s women’s equality movement reflects the influence of France’s self-understanding as a republic with a longstanding commitment to universalism, a view which stands in stark contrast to the United States’ self-understanding as a multicultural society with a greater tolerance for particularism. Using extensive secondary source research and interviews that I conducted France’s first two female rabbis, I conclude by questioning how French Jewish women should best pursue gender equality within this universalist framework.