PURPORT

It is a prejudice amongst smarta-brahmanas that a widow must observe fasting on Ekadasi but a woman who has her husband should not. It appears that before the request of Lord Caitanya Sacimata was not observing Ekadasi because of her being sa-dhava, which means that her husband was living. Sri Caitanya Mahaprabhu, however, introduced the system that a woman, even if not a widow, must observe the Ekadasi day and must not touch any kind of grains, even those offered to the Deity of Visnu.