II: Things I do not know about sheva nekiim and femininity

'The daughters of Israel have undertaken to be so strict with themselves that if they see a drop of blood no bigger than a mustard seed they wait seven [clean] days after it' (Ber. 31a). [hattip MOB]

There practice of counting an additional 7 clean days before mikvah is without a doubt inconvenient and unpleasant for all. It turns out that the righteous daughters of Israel chose to be extremely stringent in this area in order to avoid coming close to any sin. I fully understand the concept of building a ‘fence’ around a prohibition, but I have a hard time accepting that the women of yore voluntarily turned the most uncomfortable, inconvenient chumra into halakha and enforced it on all following generations. Jewish women are usually so practical; the chumra of sheva nekiim is not.

It’s been said (somewhere in the blogsphere, but can’t remember where—links appreciated here) that giving credit to the women for establishing the practice was done as a rhetorical device. I doubt that because it’s rare to see and therefore begs an explanation. The feminine voice was so rarely heard in halakhic ruling; why did they choose to speak up specifically here?

I’ve also heard it said that perhaps the sheva nikiim were designed as an indirect, acceptable form of practicing birth control. But apparently this is would be a cruel and also unreliable method as it only affects about 1/3^rd of women who practice family purity. Also, the majority of orthodox women want to have many babies—so again the logic fails.

What then could possibly motivate the righteous women to accept and enforce this tedious practice? Did Chava not do enough damage to femininity through similar overextension of a chumra into absolute issur?

See part I: Things you may not knkow about sheva nekiim and infertility.