The letter of Rav Shalom Cohen banning women from academic institutions, even Haredi ones, has taken up much of the airwaves over the past couple of days. People are upset, people are supportive, stories are coming out how bad education is and how it caused people to stumble and has destroyed families, people are questioning, how could it be, Rav Ovadia's daughter, etc.
(as an aside, the most interesting story I heard, from a rabbi on the radio, was the one where a young women went to one of these academies and then got a job. At the job she became exposed to the internet, and then things changed with her spirituality - he didnt say what specifically,but it negatively affected the home and children - I found that story funny as it did not really have to do at all with the academy. In her workplace she used the Internet and that was the problem he described, but he blames the academy for her downfall.)
One comment in particular stood out for me. MK Aliza Lavie (Yesh Atid) criticized Rav Cohen as becoming irrelevant and disconnected form the people. Lavie said he is trying to take the community many years backwards , and he is going directly against the moreshet, the legacy, of Rav Ovadia Yosef whose daughter founded the Michala Hacharedit, with the blessing of her father..
Without getting into debating Rav Cohen's words (I think most readers here know what I feel on this topic), I think MK Lavie is off-base. Rav Cohen is not obligated by Rav Ovadia's legacy. I dont even know if that can be called his legacy - just because it was one thing he did and supported, does that become his legacy? Who decides what someone's legacy is?
But even if it is the legacy of Rav Ovadia, why should Rav Cohen be obligated by it? Rav Cohen is a big boy and, to paraphrase Robin Ventura, he took a position, as head of the Moetzet of Shas, in which he had to put his big boy pants on. He can do what he feels is right, regardless of what Rav Ovadia thought. Rav Cohen is in charge now, he is the go-to rav, he makes the decisions. He does not have to follow someone else, but can do what he himself feels is right.
Statesmen are not obligated by Rabin's legacy, whatever it might be, or Ben Gurion's legacy or Menachem Begin's legacy, and rabbis are not obligated by Rav Ovadia's legacy, or Rav Shach's legacy, or the Brisker Rav's legacy.