Women's ordination

The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some major religious groups of the present time, as it was of several pagan religions of antiquity though never of Judeo-Christian religions.

It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian denominations where "ordination" (the process by which a person is understood to be consecrated and set apart by God for the administration of various religious rites) has for almost 2000 years been limited only to men.

In some cases women have been permitted to be ordained, but not to hold higher positions, such as (until July 2014) that of bishop in the Church of England. Where laws prohibit sex discrimination in employment, exceptions are often made for clergy (for example, in the United States).

In Ancient Egyptian religion, God's Wife of Amun was the highest ranking priestess; this title was held by a daughter of the High Priest of Amun, during the reign of Hatshepsut, while the capital of Egypt was in Thebes during the second millennium BC (circa 2160 BC).

Later, Divine Adoratrice of Amun was a title created for the chief priestess of Amun. During the first millennium BC, when the holder of this office exercised her largest measure of influence, her position was an important appointment facilitating the transfer of power from one pharaoh to the next, when his daughter was adopted to fill it by the incumbent office holder. The Divine Adoratrice ruled over the extensive temple duties and domains, controlling a significant part of the ancient Egyptian economy.

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