In religious vocations, Catholic women and men are ascribed different roles.
Men serve as deacons, priests, friars, monks, brothers, abbots or in episcopal positions while women serve as nuns, religious sisters, abbesses or prioresses.
Women are engaged in a variety of vocations, from contemplative prayer, to teaching, providing health care and working as missionaries.
In 2006, the number of nuns worldwide had been in decline, but women still constituted around 753,400 members of the consecrated life, of a total worldwide membership of around 945,210.
Of these members, 191,810 were men - including around 136,171 priests.

Nuns and sisters may house themselves in convents – though an abbey may host a religious community of men or women.
There are many different women's religious institutes and societies of apostolic life, each with its own charism or special character.

In religious institutes for women that are called orders (those in which solemn vows are taken), the members are called nuns; if they are devoted completely to contemplation, they adopt the strict form of cloister or enclosure known as papal cloister, while other nuns perform apostolic work outside their monasteries and are cloistered or enclosed only to the degree established by their rule, a form known as constitutional cloister.
Women members of religious institutes that are called congregations are not required by canon law to be cloistered are referred to, strictly speaking, as sisters rather than nuns, although in common use the two terms are often used interchangeably.

Women may also become numenaries in Opus Dei, they live separately from their male counterparts in Opus Dei, but are not cloistered from men.
In religious vocations, Catholic women and men are ascribed different roles. Men serve as deacons, priests, friars, monks, brothers, abbots or in episcopal positions while women serve as nuns, religious sisters, abbesses or prioresses. Women are engaged in a variety of vocations, from contemplative prayer, to teaching, providing health care and working as missionaries. In 2006, the number of nuns worldwide had been in decline, but women still constituted around 753,400 members of the consecrated life, of a total worldwide membership of around 945,210. Of these members, 191,810 were men - including around 136,171 priests.
Nuns and sisters may house themselves in convents – though an abbey may host a religious community of men or women. There are many different women's religious institutes and societies of apostolic life, each with its own charism or special character.
In religious institutes for women that are called orders (those in which solemn vows are taken), the members are called nuns; if they are devoted completely to contemplation, they adopt the strict form of cloister or enclosure known as papal cloister, while other nuns perform apostolic work outside their monasteries and are cloistered or enclosed only to the degree established by their rule, a form known as constitutional cloister. Women members of religious institutes that are called congregations are not required by canon law to be cloistered are referred to, strictly speaking, as sisters rather than nuns, although in common use the two terms are often used interchangeably.
Women may also become numenaries in Opus Dei, they live separately from their male counterparts in Opus Dei, but are not cloistered from men.
Women in the Catholic Church