Women in Church history
Women play a variety of roles in Christianity—notably as contemplatives, healthcare providers, educationalists, and missionaries. Until recent times, women have been generally excluded from episcopal and clerical positions within certain Christian churches; however, great numbers of women were influential in the life of the church, from contemporaries of Jesus to subsequent saints, theologians, doctors of the church, missionaries, abbesses, nuns, mystics, founders of religious institutes, military leaders, monarchs, and martyrs.