tinctions thus constitute a fallen and imperfect condi-
tion and are a sign of humanity’s moral decline. A nec-
essary corollary of this is that as individual beings
perfect themselves by following the Buddhist PATH,
they return, to some extent, to this genderless ideal.
Since sexual differentiation brought about passion and
lust, it follows that those who eradicate passion and
lust would reverse the process of differentiation. Sym-
bolically, this is suggested by the androgynous behav-
ior and appearance of Buddhist MONKSand NUNS, with
their shaved heads, baggy robes, and identical forms of
practice. Doctrinally, it is reinforced by early Bud-
dhism’s frequent insistence on the irrelevance of gen-
der in spiritual matters and the equal ability of men
and women to attain liberation. Women are repeat-
edly described as being fully capable of attaining NIR-
VANA(as well as other spiritual goals), and there are
many examples of highly accomplished women
throughout the early literature. The Buddha’s direct
disciples included many arhatls(female ARHATs) who
were highly esteemed for their moral discipline, med-
itation, and learning. The liberation of a woman is
identical to the liberation of a man, as are the quali-
ties that lead to it.
This tendency toward androgyny and gender equal-
ity in matters of the dharma must be balanced, how-
ever, against a range of conflicting views equally well
represented in early Buddhist literature. Despite the
idealization and symbolic appropriation of the an-
drogyny of the Golden Age, for example, it appears
that once gender distinctions have developed, they
must be observed and maintained. This is apparent in
the way early Buddhist texts describe the Buddhist
community as a “fourfold community” consisting of
“monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen,” with the dis-
tinction by gender being considered just as funda-
mental as the distinction between monastics and LAITY.
This sense of the separation and complementarity of
the two genders is pervasive throughout early Buddhist
literature: There is an order of monks and an order of
nuns, the Buddha has two chief male disciples and two
chief female disciples, and the lives of men and women
are treated separately in complementary texts such
as the Theragatha (Verses of the Elder Monks) and
Therlgatha(Verses of the Elder Nuns). Real, rather than
symbolic, gender ambiguity is problematic and can-
not be tolerated. In fact, proper male or female gen-
der had to be officially confirmed at the time of
ORDINATION, and people of ambiguous gender of var-
ious types were barred from entering the SAN ̇GHA.
Distinction between the genders is further rein-
forced by a consistent hierarchy in which male gender
is made superior to female gender. The higher status
of men over women is again pervasive throughout
early Buddhist literature. Thus, the order of nuns is
subordinate to the order of monks, seniority for nuns
is calculated separately from and is lower than senior-
ity for monks, and giving alms to a nun results in less
merit for the donor than giving alms to a monk (a be-
lief that has adversely affected the order of nuns
throughout history). Moreover, this inferiority of
women is not merely a matter of social convention,
but is, in fact, karmically significant. Male or female
gender is determined at the time of conception by one’s
KARMA(ACTION), with male gender being an indica-
tion of better karma than female gender. In cases of
spontaneous sex change (several of which are attested
in the Pali Vinaya), the change from male into female
is the result of a powerful evil deed, while the change
from female into male is the result of a powerful good
deed. The same is true of sexual transformations that
occur through REBIRTH: In Buddhist stories, women
sometimes aspire to be reborn as men (and succeed in
doing so by performing good deeds), whereas men
never aspire to be reborn as women (but occasionally
are as a result of bad deeds).
Early Buddhist views of female gender are further
affected by the demands of male celibacy. Because of
the threat women pose to this celibacy, there is often
a tendency in these male-authored texts to associate fe-
male gender with sexuality and lust, and to demonize
women as immoral and dangerous temptresses out to
divert male renunciants from the path. Women are de-
scribed as being “wholly the snares of MARA,” and are
said to be driven by uncontrollable lust and “never
sated with sexual intercourse and childbirth.” The im-
purity of the female body is also emphasized, and fe-
male biological processes such as menstruation are
depicted as being filthy and polluting. Alternatively,
women (especially virtuous Buddhist laywomen) are
sometimes highly idealized as nurturing wives and
mothers or celebrated for their feminine beauty and
fertility. But whether idealized as madonnas or demo-
nized as whores, such persistent gender stereotypes
tend to weaken the tradition’s clear statements of gen-
der equality in matters of the dharma.
It is also true that beyond the status of arhatship,
early Buddhist texts are more ambivalent about
women’s spiritual capabilities. In many texts, we find
a list of the woman’s “five hindrances” or thoseGENDER