Rachel and "the way of women"

WRJ Torah Commentary - Special Study Session with Rosanne Selfon:

We studied the passage about Rachel taking her father's idols: Genesis 31

Reviewing the questions of why Rachel took the idols and what extended meaning might be found in this story we explored the various possibilities of reasons. R. Andrea Weiss compiled the analysis from Rashi, Rashbam to Alter and Plaut with explanations that range from: "to keep her father from idol worship" to "following the custom of the times" or "symbolic of her defying her father".

Then we moved on a bit to discuss the part where she concealed the idols from her father by sitting on them and then stating, "I cannon rise before you, for the period of women is upon me".

Wendy Zierier (author, And Rachel Stole the Idols) compiled commentary on this part. One that caught our interest:
As with 'I cannot rise before you', Rachel takes the "way of women". an expression that is usually defined by men as "not the way of men" and she layers over its male-generated meaning with her own meaning from her own female perspective. Rachel is thus speaking two languages simultaneously: One is the male-dominated language that sees the "way of women" as a sexually "other" way of being; the second is her own language created from her female perspective, which understands the 'way of women" as an unsanctioned subversive way of attaining justice. Her subversive action in stealing the teraphim is matched by her equally subversive undermining of the male definitions of women and her creation of new meanings out of male-generated language.
by J. E. Lapsley "The Voice of Rachel..."

This particular passage gives a point of view worth more thought. Rachel was a ‘clever’ and ‘wily’ individual and knew how to use her gender to her own advantage. Whether she took the idols to ‘help her father’ or to ‘confirm her rights of inheritance’ or because she believed them to ‘have special powers for her’, it is certain that Rachel knew how to make an impact in her household and use her feminine attributes to her own advantage.