Rome was very much a male dominated society; so much so that in the Roman
Republic a man could legally kill his wife or daughter if they questioned his authority.
Women were also kept out of positions of power.
When Rome converted to Christianity women hoped that Jesus Christ's views
on equality would lead to changes in men's attitudes towards women. This didn’t
happen exactly as many women hoped but development of Christianity shows
women have played important roles in respect of mother hood or as nuns for
example who are devoted to a religious order.
This has influenced society across the world.
While Catholic women cannot become priests, prominent women in the life of the
church have included everything from Old Testament figures, to the Virgin Mary and
female disciples of Jesus in the New Testament, and to theologians, abbesses,
monarchs, missionaries, mystics, martyrs, nurses, teachers and religious sisters.
A special role and devotion is accorded to Jesus' mother, Mary and Marian
devotion has been a central theme of Catholic art. Motherhood and family are given
a sacred status in church teachings.
There have been many female Catholic saints and many devotions started by
women. Women have played an important role in Catholicism through convents
and abbeys, particularly in the establishment of schools, hospitals, nursing homes
and monastic settlements, through religious orders of nuns or sisters like the
Benedictines, Dominicans, Loreto Sisters, Sisters of Mercy, Little Sisters of the
Poor, Josephites, and Missionaries of Charity.
Famous Catholic women include Nobel Peace Prize winner Mother Teresa, and anti-
death penalty campaigner Sister Helen Prejean.
The Church has influenced the status of women in various ways by
condemning infanticide, divorce, incest, polygamy and counting the marital
infidelity of men as equally sinful to that of women. The Church holds abortion and
contraception to be sinful although this view is much more relaxed today
