Relegion had very little to do with womens rights in todays
I disagree… what we saw in the past was human law that stemed from pre-Christian times taking a very long time to get rid of.
time, simply from my little knowlege of history its not like i remebr the pope helping women become more equal heck women still can’t be priests in most sects of christianity…
Sounds like you know next to nothing about the religion you claim to belong to nor its history.
The Holy See welcomes the opportunity of addressing the theme of the human rights of women, the first of the four critical areas of concern of the Beijing Platform for Action to be studied by this session.
In addressing the Commission on the Status of Women today, the Holy See speaks from a 2,000-year involvement on behalf of the human rights of women and girls.
2000 years ago, Christianity and the RCC brought new ideas of women’s right throughout the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Many of these were laws that came from Jewish laws.
These laws forbid the exposure (killing by leaving in the elements) of female children, infanticide and other forms of abuse.
It ended the prostitution that was part of pagan practices and worship… Have you ever heard of the temple prostitutes? This is a pagan practice that was outlawed by the RCC.
Women more rights in marriage… In Christian marriage the wife has to honor and obey her husband. But her husband has to put her needs first and serve her. Pretty close to equal right. The problem is that it took centuries to end old practices.
Women got the right to heritance equal to their brothers. Again this is a right that took a long time to come into full practice because the men of Europe did not want to give up their control of the wealth. But for example in England early on, single women were allowed to own and control their own property.
Throughout the history of the RCC there were women in important positions. Why do you think that there are so many women saints? Would there be so many if the RCC did not take women seriously.
The Church, throughout its long history, has been peopled with empowered women - military leaders, judges, chatelaines and controllers of property - many of whom are now revered as saints. Among these women are: St Bathildis, the wife of Clovis II and regent of his kingdom, who fought slavery and abusive taxation; Matilda of Quedlinburg, who ruled in the name of her brother, the Emperor Otto II; St Isabel of Portugal, who won fame as a peacemaker, and Countess Matilda of Tuscany, who wore armour into battle.
Other striking examples of empowered women are the Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Frankish abbesses of the early Middle Ages, who not infrequently ruled over double monasteries composed of both men and women.
Examples of such women are St Hilda, the abbess of Whitby, Walburga, the abbess of Heidenheim, and Edburga, the abbess of Minister-in-Thanet. In the 11th century the brilliant Dr Trotula de Ruggiero held a chair as a professor of medicine at the University of Salerno. A few centuries later, St Catherine of Siena and St Rose of Viterbo played powerful and dramatic roles in the political life of their time.
In addition, the Church has had a long history of involvement with the education of women and girls. The monasteries of St Benedict and his sister, St Scholastica, preserved and promoted learning during the Dark Ages of Europe. There, at a time when the general population was illiterate, women in religion often learned to read. The monasteries sometimes produced great women scholars, such as the polymath Hildegarde of Bingen, who was poet, scientist and musician, and the poet and mystic, Catherine of Bologna. At the time of the Renaissance, Angela Merici founded the Ursuline Order with the specific purpose of educating poor girls; since’ then, countless other women’s orders have dedicated themselves to women’s education.
Today there are more than 21.3 million women and girls being educated in Church-run institutions: 84,194 Catholic primary schools teach 11.5 million girls; 237,640 secondary schools teach 6.2 million girls; 3,163 Catholic colleges or universities currently have 1.2 million women students.
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~nmcenter/women-cp/church_empowers_women.html