It is so tragic that so many men who think of themselves as "Christians" don't actually follow the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth at all, but are followers instead of Paul of Tarsus, a patron saint of male chauvinism if there ever was one. It's Paul's teaching that has proven to be a treasure-trove of materials for males who seem to have such a low esteem for themselves that the only way they have found to feel good about themselves is to promote disdain for the other half of the human race.
      When, on the other hand, people have been nourished on the teaching and example of Jesus of Nazareth, they are likely to have a much more favorable view not only of women, but of everybody else as well.

{ Matthew 9:18-25 }  
[paralleled in Mark 5:25-33 & Luke 8:43-47]

While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, "My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live."  And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples.  Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well."  Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, "Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well." And instantly the woman was made well.  When Jesus came to the leader's house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, "Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping." And they laughed at him.  But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up.

{ Matthew 13:33 }  

{ Matthew 15:22-28 }  
[ paralleled in Mark 7:25-30 ]

Just then a Canaanite (i.e. Gentile) woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon."  But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us."  He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."  But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me."  He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs."  She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table."  Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.

{ Matthew 26:6-13 }  

Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.  But when the disciples saw it, they were angry and said, "Why this waste?  For this ointment could have been sold for a large sum, and the money given to the poor."  But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, "Why do you trouble the woman?  She has performed a good service for me.  For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.  By pouring this ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.  Truly I tell you, wherever this good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her."

{Matthew 27:55-56 }  

{Matthew 28:1-10 }  

After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb.  And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an angel of the Lord, descending from heaven, came and rolled back the stone and sat on it.  His appearance was like lightning, and his clothing white as snow.  For fear of him the guards shook and became like dead men.  But the angel said to the women, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified.  He is not here; for he has been raised, as he said. Come, see the place where he lay.  Then go quickly and tell his disciples, 'He has been raised from the dead, and indeed he is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see him.' This is my message for you."  So they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to tell his disciples.   Suddenly Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.  Then Jesus said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me."

{Matthew 23:37 }  
[ paralleled in Luke 13:34 ]

{ Luke 24:10-11 }  

{ Mark 10:2-13 }  
[paralleled in Matthew 5:20 . . . 32 & Luke 8:43-47]

Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"  He answered them, "What did Moses command you?"  They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her."  But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you.  But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.'  'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."  Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter.  He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."  People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them.  But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs.  Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."  16 And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

{ Mark 14:3 }  

{ Luke 7:36-50 }  

One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and took his place at the table.   And a woman in the city, who was a sinner, having learned that he was eating in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster jar of ointment.  She stood behind him at his feet, weeping, and began to bathe his feet with her tears and to dry them with her hair.  Then she continued kissing his feet and anointing them with the ointment.
        Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw it, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what kind of woman this is who is touching him ― that she is a sinner."  Jesus spoke up and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you." "Teacher," he replied, "Speak."  "A certain creditor had two debtors; one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  When they could not pay, he canceled the debts for both of them.  Now which of them will love him more?"  Simon answered, "I suppose the one for whom he canceled the greater debt."  And Jesus said to him, "You have judged rightly." 
        Then, turning toward the woman, he said to Simon,  "Do you see this woman?  I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss, but from the time I came in she has not stopped kissing my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.  But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little."  Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."  But those who were at the table with him began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"
        And he said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

{ Luke 8:1-3 }  

{ Luke 10:38 }         Now as they went on their way, he entered a certain village, where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home.

{ Luke 11:27 }         While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!"

{ Luke 13:11 }  

Now he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath.  And just then there appeared a woman with a spirit that had crippled her for eighteen years.  She was bent over and was quite unable to stand up straight.  When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said, "Woman, you are set free from your ailment."  When he laid his hands on her, immediately she stood up straight and began praising God.  But the leader of the synagogue, indignant because Jesus had cured on the sabbath, kept saying to the crowd, "There are six days on which work ought to be done; come on those days and be cured, and not on the sabbath day."  But the Lord answered him and said, "You hypocrites! Does not each of you on the sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the manger, and lead it away to give it water?  And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen long years, be set free from this bondage on the sabbath day?"  When he said this, all his opponents were put to shame; and the entire crowd was rejoicing at all the wonderful things that he was doing.

"What woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it?

{ Luke 20:26-38 }  

And they were not able in the presence of the people to trap him by what he said; and being amazed by his answer, they became silent.  Some Sadducees, those who say there is no resurrection, came to him and asked him a question, "Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, leaving a wife but no children, the man shall marry the widow and raise up children for his brother.  Now there were seven brothers; the first married, and died childless; then the second and the third married her, and so in the same way all seven died childless.  Finally the woman also died.  In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had married her."  Jesus said to them, "Those who belong to this age marry and are given in marriage;  but those who are considered worthy of a place in that age and in the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage.  Indeed they cannot die anymore, because they are like angels and are children of God, being children of the resurrection.  And the fact that the dead are raised Moses himself showed, in the story about the bush, where he speaks of the Lord as the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.  Now he is God not of the dead, but of the living; for to him all of them are alive."

{ Luke 23:27 }  

A great number of the people followed him, and among them were women who were beating their breasts and wailing for him.  But Jesus turned to them and said, "Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children."

{ John 2:1-12 }  

On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.  Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding.  When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."  And Jesus said to her, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come."  His mother said to the servants, "Do whatever he tells you."  Now standing there were six stone water jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  Jesus said to them, "Fill the jars with water." And they filled them up to the brim.  He said to them, "Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward." So they took it.  When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk.  But you have kept the good wine until now."  Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.  After this he went down to Capernaum with his mother, his brothers, and his disciples. . .

{ John 4:4 . . . 42 }  

But he had to go through Samaria.   So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well.  It was about noon.  A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, "Give me a drink."  (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.)   The Samaritan woman said to him, "How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?" (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)   Jesus answered her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, 'Give me a drink,' you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water."   The woman said to him, "Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep.  Where do you get that living water?  Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?"  Jesus said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,  but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty.  The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life."   The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water."  Jesus said to her, "Go, call your husband, and come back."   The woman answered him, "I have no husband." Jesus said to her, "You are right in saying, 'I have no husband'; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.  What you have said is true!"  The woman said to him, "Sir, I see that you are a prophet.  Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem."  Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.  But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.  God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."  The woman said to him, "I know that Messiah is coming" (who is called Christ).  "When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us."  Jesus said to her, "I am he, the one who is speaking to you."
        Just then his disciples came.  They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, "What do you want?" or, "Why are you speaking with her?"
        Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city.  She said to the people,  "Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?" . . .   Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman's testimony, "He told me everything I have ever done."  So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days.  And many more believed because of his word.  They said to the woman, "It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world."

{ John 8: 2-11 }  

"Early in the morning he came again to the temple.  All the people came to him and he sat down and began to teach them.  The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery; and making her stand before all of them, they said to him, "Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of committing adultery.  Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such women.  Now what do you say?"  They said this to test him, so that they might have some charge to bring against him.
        Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.  When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, "Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her."   And once again he bent down and wrote on the ground.   When they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the elders; and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.  Jesus straightened up and said to her, "Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?"  She said, "No one, sir."   And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."

{ John 16:21 }         When a woman is in labor, she has pain, because her hour has come.  But when her child is born, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy of having brought a human being into the world.

{ John 18:16-17 }         but Peter was standing outside at the gate.  So the other disciple, who was known to the high priest, went out, spoke to the woman who guarded the gate, and brought Peter in. . .  The woman said to Peter, "You are not also one of this man's disciples, are you?" He said, "I am not."

{ John 19:26-27 }         When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, "Woman, here is your son."  Then he said to the disciple, "Here is your mother."   And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

{ John 20:10-18 }  

Then the disciples returned to their homes.  But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.  As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet.  They said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?"  She said to them, "They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him."  When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.  Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?  Whom are you looking for?"  Supposing him to be the groundskeeper, she said to him, "Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away."  Jesus said to her, "Mary!" She turned and said to him in Hebrew, "Rabbouni!" (which means Teacher).  Jesus said to her, "Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father.  But go to my brothers and say to them, 'I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"  Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, "I have seen the Lord";  and she told them that he had said these things to her."

Anyone who thinks the Roman Catholic hierarchy's treatment of women is a laughing matter, however, is sadly mistaken, as the following example illustrates all too well:

        "When the nun and physician Maura O'Donohue of the Roman Catholic Aid Agency, CAFOD, prepared a report on the rape of nuns by priests (all over the world), she must have expected the shocking information contained in the report to trigger immediate papal action. In her report the author cites cases in which priests and missionaries forced nuns to have sex with them and in several instances not only raped but also obliged the nuns to have abortions. In one case a mother superior, who repeatedly complained to her local bishop that priests in his diocese had made twenty-nine of her nuns pregnant, was removed from her position by the bishop. (Notice that no offending "MAN of God" is punished, but this virtuous WOMAN IS!) The report, which was written and shown to the Vatican in 1994, covers cases in twenty-three countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, and North and South America.
        Four years later, Marie MacDonald, head of the Missionaries of Our Lady in Africa, presented a similar study on Sexual Abuse and Rape Committed by Priests to the Vatican. It appears that, especially in AIDS-infected areas, priests sought to replace the prostitutes with whom they had sex, with nuns. That was their version of "safe sex". Pope John Paul II and his bishops and cardinals, who regularly exhort the Catholic faithful to keep chaste, prohibit the use of condoms, even to save lives, and do not yield to pressure to allow priests to marry, kept quiet. Seven years after receiving the CAFOD report, and only after the information about the report had been leaked to the media, the Vatican confirmed that such abuse had, indeed, been taking place. For years, nuns continued to be subjected to rape by their own 'brothers in Christ' and the Vatican kept quiet. The highest echelons of the Catholic Church, where no one seems ever to be accountable, sat on the information and did nothing."
(Double Cross, by David Ranan, p. 338)

"I commend to you our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints, and help her in whatever she may require from you, for she has been a benefactor of many and of myself as well." {Romans 16: 1-2)

"Greet Andronicus and Junia, my relatives who were in prison with me; they are prominent among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was." (Romans 16:7 )

the following I have not yet read, but looks very promising:
www.urantiabook.org/archive/women/title.htm

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Check out the Campaign for the ordination of women in the R. C. Church.

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        There are still many parts of the world where women are stripped of their basic human rights. For example, in Nepal, women are considered "unclean" during childbirth and consigned to the cowshed - often cutting their own umbilical cords with a sickle still dirty from farm work. The result is one of the highest rates of maternal mortality on earth.
        Sadly, as a general rule, women are more vulnerable than men when it comes to poverty:

• Women constitute 75% of the poorest people in the world today.
• Women produce half the world's food, but own only 1% of its farmland.
• Two-thirds of illiterate adults are women.

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Despite tough laws, British girls still suffer the horror of genital mutilation..

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If your computer's wired for audio & video, check out

this great "Mom's Symphonic Overture".