What's With the Tiny Women's Section?

Yes, my experience at the Wall was fantastic. But what's with the tiny women's section? As Matt said in his previous post, there are separate areas for the men and women to visit the Wall. The separation consists of a relatively flimsy green fence.

After going through a security screening, there is an area where both men and women can mingle and then you must split to go to either into the men's section (on the left) or the women's section (on the right). However, the women's section is much, much smaller than the men's section.

There was nearly no room left to get near the Wall when Jean and I first arrived in the women's section. (Ten minutes later it got really busy and women had to nearly climb over chairs and push through others to even get close to the Wall.)

As I walked slowly up to the Wall, I noticed lots of plastic chairs also sitting about. The chairs were actually a very welcome relief because the sun was blazing and we'd been walking for quite a while already. A few of the chairs were near the Wall itself, which is where Jean and I sat before we did Mincha (which brought several stares from some of the other women at the Wall).

However, I also noticed a large number of chairs were also lined up along the separation fence. Some women stood on these chairs to peer over the fence into the men's section. Tempted as I was, I didn't look over the fence, but Matt later told me there was a Bar Mitzvah going on. How do the women in the young boy's family get to participate in the simcha?

Matt also told me of the interesting side rooms that he was able to enter. I didn't see any side rooms in the women's section, but I didn't explore the small tunnel on the right which might have led to interesting side rooms or might have been a dead end. I look forward to visiting the Wall again and next time, I'll explore a bit more.