Women constitute the great majority of members of the consecrated life within the church.
Catholic women have played diverse roles, with religious institutes providing a formal space for their participation and convents providing spaces for their self-government, prayer and influence through many centuries.
Catholic women have played a formidable role as educationalists and health care administrators, with religious sisters and nuns extensively involved in developing and running the church's worldwide health and education service networks.

In religious vocations, Catholic women and men are ascribed different roles, with women serving as nuns, religious sisters or abbesses, but in other roles, the Catholic Church does not distinguish between men and women, who may be equally recognised as saints, doctors of the church, catechists in schools, altar servers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Mass, or as readers (lectors) during the liturgy.
Women constitute the great majority of members of the consecrated life within the church. Catholic women have played diverse roles, with religious institutes providing a formal space for their participation and convents providing spaces for their self-government, prayer and influence through many centuries. Catholic women have played a formidable role as educationalists and health care administrators, with religious sisters and nuns extensively involved in developing and running the church's worldwide health and education service networks.
In religious vocations, Catholic women and men are ascribed different roles, with women serving as nuns, religious sisters or abbesses, but in other roles, the Catholic Church does not distinguish between men and women, who may be equally recognised as saints, doctors of the church, catechists in schools, altar servers, extraordinary ministers of Holy Communion at Mass, or as readers (lectors) during the liturgy.
Women in the Catholic Church