User:The Rahul Jain/Women in Jainism

The religion of Jains included women in their fourfold sangha; the religious order of Jain laymen, laywomen, monks and nuns. There was a disagreement between early Hinduism, which did not allow scriptural access to women, and ascetic movements such as Jainism which were based on equality. However, the early svetambara scriptures prevented pregnant women, young women or those who have a small child, to enter to the ranks of nun. Regardless, the number of nuns given in those texts were always the double of the number of monks. Parsva and Mahavira, two historical teachers of Jainism has huge numbers of female devotees and ascetics.

According to the svetambara's scriptures such as Chhedasutra, women were given lesser authority than their male counterparts. The reasons for this, in the commentaries, were that things which could endanger the vow of chasity should be avoided. Nalini Balbir writes that the belief that women are more fragile then men were all-pervading in these texts.

The Digambara sect of Jainism believes that women must be reborn as men in order to achieve liberation. Digambara texts like Yuktiprabodha say that women's genitals and breasts are sources of impurity and have many micro-organisims living in them. Digambara Jain theologians have written that due to bodily secretions, women suffer from itching which gives them uncontrollable sexual urges. They believe that women cannot take higher vows of ascetic renunciation, because naked women would have two deep emotions: shame of being naked and fear of sexual assault which they might face.

The Svetambara sect, however, disagrees with this position, holding that one of the Tirthankaras, Mallinath, was a woman and even today the majority of Svetambara monastics are female.