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. In 2016, it was estimated that 52–53 percent of the world's Christian population aged 20 years and over was female, with this figure falling to 51.6 percent in 2020. The Pew Research Center studied the effects of gender on religiosity throughout the world, finding that Christian women in 53 countries are generally more religious than Christian men, while Christians of both genders in African countries are equally likely to regularly attend services. 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 (bishops, presbyters and deacons); 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 (priesthood), 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. Other Protestant denominations such as the Quakers have also embraced female preachers since their inception; the Shakers, a Protestant monastic denomination that originated from the Quakers, were also distinctly egalitarian in their original leadership. Christian traditions that officially recognise saints as persons of exceptional holiness venerate many women as saints. 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".