Can man be in the trade of articles for women? (clothes, perfumes etc...)
Asked on October 14, 2026
Answer
Listen, ideally a man should not be in the business of selling women's clothing or perfumes. This is very clear from our chachamim. The Mishnah teaches that anyone whose business is with women, meaning his trade provides for the needs of women like clothing stores, may not be alone even with many women. A man should not teach his son a trade that involves women - don't teach your son to be a hairdresser, don't teach your son to deal with women's things. Why? Because it will lead to sin. All of these men that are in the clothing business, if it's women's clothing, they should probably find a different profession. Find something else to sell. There's plenty of other things to sell. Why? Because unless you can find somebody else to touch it, unless you can find somebody else to look at it, and you can focus just on numbers, you're going to end up sinning. You look at women's clothes, you think about women. You think about women, you think about what they look like without the clothes. That's the way we were created. People that want to be righteous should usually refrain from being in businesses that deal a lot with women. So for example, people that want to be righteous cannot be in certain jobs where you deal with a lot of women. The key is that for us to have true success, our brains always have to be directed towards our goals, toward serving HaShem properly. Now, there is one exception that our sages made. Ezra HaSofer made a takkanah that traveling peddlers who go from town to town selling women's cosmetics, perfumes, and clothing should be allowed to do so. Why? Because these items need to be accessible to women so they can look beautiful in their husband's eyes. If they're attractive in their husband's eyes, there's not going to be divorce and there's not going to be adultery. The Rambam paskens this halachah in Hilchot Shechenim. But this is only for peddlers going from town to town, not stationary in one place, unless the person is a Talmid Chacham. If it's a Talmid Chacham, he's allowed to be stationary in one place because we're not worried about a Talmid Chacham becoming a womanizer. But if it's an out-of-towner going from town to town and he's not a Talmid Chacham, he can go from place to place but not stay stationary, so there's not enough time to develop a relationship with the women customers. So the bottom line: it's permitted under certain conditions for the sake of shalom bayit, but ideally, a man should choose a different profession that doesn't involve constant dealing with women and their articles.
