# Which religions treat women and men as equals? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 11, 2026, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552 "2026-01-11T02:56:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/142 "2026-01-21T18:51:42Z")
Never mind, already made this joke. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/143 "2026-01-21T19:19:10Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > > [@xtenkfarpl](#): > > > > From what I have read, it seems to me that Buddhism wasn’t originally a ‘religion’ at all, in the sense of having one or more deities? > > I’ll just add to DPRK’s excellent reply that Buddhism is organized around the Four Noble Truths and believing those things are true is pretty much what makes you a Buddhist. I think religion is more about how you organize your life and attribute meaning to it than it is about what gods you believe in. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2026, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/144 "2026-01-21T20:31:51Z")
Sure. I’m not really prepared to define religion here, but if I had to answer the question “What makes a Buddhist a Buddhist?” I would say, “Alignment with the Four Noble Truths.” I mean, the Eightfold Path is a prescription for how to live your life. (Literally. I learned recently that the Four Noble Truths are intentionally organized to mirror what would, at the time, have been a physician’s prescription: In four steps, a diagnosis of the problem, and the recommended remedy.) Zen is weird. There are people who don’t even consider Zen a form of Buddhism because of the absence of mysticism. And that’s what I practice. It is mostly sitting around and paying attention. We have certain texts that we emphasize such as the Heart Sutra, and there’s some chanting, and we get deep into philosophy at times, but it really is mostly paying attention. Which is harder than you might think. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2026, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/145 "2026-01-22T01:35:26Z")
> [@puzzlegal](#): > > I think religion is more about how you organize your life and attribute meaning to it than it is about what gods you believe in. The way I put it, what you pray for says more about your religion than whom you pray to. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 11:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/146 "2026-03-25T11:30:16Z")
[Another woman in a top job.](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/25/world/europe/sarah-mullally-archbishop-of-canterbury-church-of-england.html?unlocked_article_code=1.V1A.hmmI.fGb-KIdEDsVW&smid=url-share) Gift link to NYT. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/147 "2026-03-25T16:07:26Z")
The ones that weren’t invented by men with the goal of using an imaginary, infallable deity as an excuse to justify the oppression of women. So basically none. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/148 "2026-03-25T16:31:32Z")
Did you even read the thread before you dropped that bigoted ignorant turd? Many religions have evolved since they were formed and are very egalitarian now. Many of those literally led the way before the rest of society got there. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/149 "2026-03-25T16:46:29Z")
I know I brought up the Episcopalian Church before but I didn’t realize how recent, and how ugly, that equalization was. Last week I watched a film about the Episcopal ordinations of the first eleven females, _The Philadelphia Eleven_, at St. Andrew Episcopal Church then, by total coincidence, rewatched it on PBS three hours later. The arrogance, fear and retaliation was vicious and long lasting. [The Philadelphia Eleven | PBS](https://www.pbs.org/show/the-philadelphia-eleven/) ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/150 "2026-03-25T16:56:21Z")
> [@crowmanyclouds](#): > > Scientology. Not as much as you might think. [Scientology and gender - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology_and_gender#:~:text=Scientology%20has%20a%20complex%20relationship%20with%20concepts%20of,the%20original%20writings%20of%20founder%20L.%20Ron%20Hubbard.) One example: " The traditional Scientology wedding ceremony includes these remarks on men and women: > Now, _(groom’s name)_, girls need clothes and food and tender happiness and frills, a pan, a comb, perhaps a cat. All caprice if you will, but still they need them. Hear well, sweet _(bride’s name)_, for promise binds. Young men are free and may forget. Remind him then that you may have necessities and follies, too. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/151 "2026-03-25T17:39:33Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#): > > In Buddhism there are two dominant paths known as the Great Vehicle (Mahayana Buddhism) and Lesser Vehicle (Theravadan Buddhism.) Seems to me that Mahayana is a bit big for its britches considering Theravadan Buddhism is the oldest practice, hewing most closely to the Buddha’s teachings, and Mahayana came later and added a bunch of shit. You know more about this than I do, but I’d like to add a qualification. Hiniyana means, “Lesser Vehicle”. Theravada means, “Doctrine of Elders”. Same group, the first one is Mahayana dissing the older of the two groups (with some justification, given the tendency of institutions to ossify I say). I’ve heard Theravada referred to as Monastic Buddhism, though there are lots of monks in Mahayana Buddism. There are old Buddhist texts debating whether women should be able to become monks (A: yes, regrettably - (NOT my view: I’m conveying the attitude of the text, which claimed that mixing the sexes would eventually lead to Buddhism’s collapse, though not the _doctrine’s_ collapse)); and whether women could achieve enlightenment (Mahayana texts sometimes have supernatural beings change their gender or even change the gender of startled Hinayana monks with older beliefs in order to mock those who say women cannot achieve enlightenment). Example: [https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/D/116](https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/dic/Content/D/116) ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/152 "2026-03-25T17:55:36Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > I know I brought up the Episcopalian Church before but I didn’t realize how recent 1. That’s about what I would have expected but I didn’t know about how ugly it was. I’ll watch that documentary. The first Reform Jewish rabbi was in 1972. Rabbi Sally Priesand is still alive although has been retired for twenty years. Obviously she faced difficulties but it wasn’t nearly as controversial. Since Passover is coming up soon, I’ll tell a story. The Passover table has a plate with symbolic pieces of food on it (shank bone, roasted egg, greens, etc). A lot of families have added an orange in recent decades. This is because when women as rabbis was being debated, some old asshole said, “a woman as a rabbi is like an orange on the seder plate”. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/153 "2026-03-25T18:43:58Z")
As a Jew who puts an orange on the seder plate, that version of the story attributes a cute saying to a man and erases LGBT people, who were the focus of the original orange, put on the plate by a woman. > **[Why do some people include an orange on the seder plate?](https://reformjudaism.org/learning/answers-jewish-questions/why-do-some-people-include-orange-seder-plate)** > > Many have incorporated new rituals as part of the Passover seder. Many seder plates include an orange, which is attributed to Susannah Heschel, professor of Jewish studies at Dartmouth College. Heschel included an orange in recognition of gay and... > Heschel [a female professor of Jewish studies] included an orange in recognition of gay and lesbian Jews, and others who are marginalized in the Jewish community. In her ritual, each person takes a segment of the orange, and before eating it, says a blessing over the fruit. The seeds are spit out as a rejection of homophobia. And for what it’s worth, this link was succinct, and easy to find, but I’ve read a grumpy article by Heschel about how she got replaced with a male Rabbi in the ritual she invented. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/154 "2026-03-25T19:47:22Z")
The official change allowing their ordination didn’t happen until September of 1976. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/155 "2026-03-25T19:58:13Z")
Honestly, I think the Episcopal church was pretty quick to ordinate women. US law only prevented discrimination on the basis of sex in 1964, and that only came about because conservative opponents of civil rights inserted it into the bill as a poison pill. During the 1970s the Equal Rights Act for women was rejected as an amendment to the constitution, as was H.R.4034, the Equal Rights Act for Women in 1974. Of course there were more positive legal developments: [here’s a list](https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/womens-rights-movement/detailed-timeline/). In politics you get a lot of changes once you cross the 50% threshold. Religions require wider consensus. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/156 "2026-03-25T23:41:11Z")
> [@Czarcasm](#): > > One example: " The traditional Scientology wedding ceremony includes these remarks on men and women: Of note: That’s not even remarks on men and women. It’s remarks on men and girls. Because of course men are Real Adults and women aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2026, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552/157 "2026-03-25T23:48:39Z")
My apologies. You are correct. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-religions-treat-women-and-men-as-equals/1026552.md?page=7)