Halakhah for Sotah 43:5

The Sages also tell of a woman who had a synagogue in her neighborhood but who would walk every day to R. Yoĥanan’s more distant synagogue. He asked her: “My daughter, isn’t there a synagogue in your neighborhood? Why do you come all the way here?” She replied, “Master, do I not receive more reward for each stride?” (Sota 22a). We learn a law from here: when a more distant synagogue is superior, one who walks there is rewarded for each pace (MA 90:22; Peninei Halakha: Prayer, ch. 3 n. 3).¹See Halikhot Beitah 6:13 and Petaĥ Ha-bayit 24-25 ad loc. Clearly, a woman praying in the women’s section accrues the merit of praying in a synagogue. Even those who maintain that the sanctity of the women’s section is not the same as the sanctity of the synagogue (Ĥokhmat Adam 86:15) would presumably agree that during prayer services the sanctity of the minyan extends to the women’s section, which is subordinate to the synagogue. AHS 154:7 rules that the women’s section is just as holy as the synagogue itself, and this is the opinion of most poskim, as cited in Tzedaka U-mishpat 12:21.