What is Women in Christianity?

The roles of women in Christianity have varied since its founding. Women have played important roles in Christianity especially in marriage and in formal ministry positions within certain Christian denominations, and parachurch organizations.

Many leadership roles in the organised church have been prohibited to women, but the majority of churches now hold an egalitarian view regarding women’s roles in the church. In the Roman Catholic and Orthodox churches, only men may serve as priests or elders ; only celibate males serve in senior leadership positions such as pope, patriarch, and cardinals. Women may serve as abbesses and consecrated virgins. A number of mainstream Protestant denominations are beginning to relax their longstanding constraints on ordaining women to be ministers , though some large groups, most notably the Southern Baptist Convention, are tightening their constraints in reaction. Most all Charismatic and Pentecostal churches were pioneers in this matter, and have embraced allowing women to preach since their founding.

Christian traditions that officially recognise saints as persons of exceptional holiness of life do list women in that group. Most prominent is Mary, mother of Jesus who is highly revered throughout Christianity, particularly in Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, where she is considered the "Mother of God". Both the apostles Paul and Peter held women in high regard and worthy of prominent positions in the church, though they were careful not to encourage anyone to disregard the New Testament household codes, also known as New Testament Domestic Codes or Haustafelen. The significance of women as the first to witness the resurrection is a content to be recognised across the centuries. There were efforts by the apostles Paul and Peter to encourage the brand new first-century Christians to obey the Patria Potestas of Greco-Roman law. The New Testament written record of their efforts in this regard is found in  Colossians 3:18-4:1, Ephesians 5:22-6:9, 1 Peter 2:13-3:7, Titus 2:1-10 and 1 Timothy 2:1ff., 3:1, 3:8, 5:17, and 6:1. As may be seen throughout the Old Testament and in the Greco-Roman culture of New Testament time, patriarchal societies placed men in positions of authority in marriage, society and government. The New Testament only records males being named among the 12 original apostles of Jesus Christ. Yet, women were the first to discover the Resurrection of Christ.

Some Christians believe clerical ordination and the conception of priesthood post-date the New Testament and that it contains no specifications for such ordination or distinction. Others cite uses of the terms presbyter and episkopos and 1 Timothy 3:1–7 or Ephesians 4:11–16. The early church developed a monastic tradition which included the institution of the convent through which women developed religious orders of sisters and nuns, an important ministry of women which has continued to the present day in the establishment of schools, hospitals, nursing homes and monastic settlements.