The primary obligation to light Chanukah candles rests with the master of the house.  However, despite the fact that the lighting ceremony must be performed at a given time, and despite the fact that women are exempt from performing time-bound positive commandments, Chanukah candle lighting is an exception to the rule.  Women are said to be obligated to light Chanukah candles because women, as well as men, witnessed the miracle of Chanukah.

Lighting of Chanukah candles is only one of several time-boung positive commandments from which early Talmudic scholars had exempted women but which later rabbis considered mandatory.  Among them are reciting the Kiddush on Shabbat, fasting on Yom Kippur, eating matzoh on Paysakh, and celebrating festivals, reading the scroll of Esther on Purim, and drinking four cups of wine at the Passover Seder.