[arandr0x]

Honest question: for women, are there any churches or other religious or spiritual traditions that do not limit them or afford them a second-class status relative to other members? (This can be in terms of church elders/leadership positions or just importance in activities, speeches giving women good role models, etc). For instance Catholic traditions usually provide quite a few female role models (not least Mary) but heavily sideline women in actual church operations, whereas Protestant traditions have more equitable leadership ranks, but don't give as much space to women who are not in leadership. I am not clueful enough to discuss other traditions sadly.

[smithkl42]

It depends mostly on the denomination, sometimes on the individual church. I'm a man, so maybe I wouldn't notice it, but I've never attended a church where I got the impression that women were second-class citizens. Every church I've ever attended has had women in the pulpit, standing on stage, leading worship, running programs, wrangling volunteers, leading Bible studies, teaching kids, discipling teenagers ... and the list goes on. I've never met a church that could have survived without the women in the congregation, and if any man ever tried to treat them like second-class citizens, I think they were likely too busy running things to notice it.

That's not saying there aren't churches like what you're worried about. It's just that I've attended a pretty good mix of conservative and liberal churches over my 50+ years, and I haven't seen one.