Buddhadharma Fall 2019

“In a way, Buddhists are in the best position,” she says. “At least,
we already had fully ordained nuns from the very beginning, and we
have a very clear statement from the Buddha himself confirming that
women have equal potential for liberation.”
Scholars confirm that the position of women in early Buddhism
started off strong. “If you look at inscriptions from the early period
of Buddhism in India, you can see a thriving nun’s order,” says
Reiko Ohnuma, a professor of Buddhism at Dartmouth College,
who has been studying the role of women in early Buddhism. Nuns
were significant donors to stupas and monastic complexes and
may have had resources and status nearly equal to those of monks.