Therefore, Stanton emphasizes that the Roman Catholic Church degrade women today in various spheres including "social life, the state and in the church ". .
Thus, this paper argues persuasively that the hierarchical structure of the Roman Catholic Church negatively impacts the lives of women. The perspectives of authors such as Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Karen O'Connor, Marie Keenan, and others reveal that the Roman Catholic Church is still very much tied to conservatism, the age long traditions of men that relegate women to subordinate positions thereby violating their Fundamental Human Rights. .
Accordingly, this paper explores the oppressive experiences of women in the Roman Catholic Church from a variety of perspectives. The first section examines a brief history of the Roman Catholic Church with a focus on gender relations. This is followed by the analysis of the politics of the hierarchy that exclude women from positions of leadership in the Roman Catholic Church. The third section of this paper examines the response of the Roman Catholic Church to some of the issues that affect the lives of women. The final section of this paper discusses the adverse impact the imposed ban on marriage within the priesthood had on wives of priests at a particular time in history. This section of this paper also examines the detrimental nature of mandatory celibacy which has become a prerequisite for the ordination of priests in the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, the four sections of this paper identify the impacts of the hierarchical order of the Roman Catholic Church on the Human Rights of women.
According to "Church History", by Manent Pierre, (1995) when Rome became the ruler of the world, the Roman Emperor Constantine converted to Christianity in about 330 CE. As a result, the Christian religion was legalized and Emperor Theodosius 1 made it the official religion of the Empire. People were compelled to become Christians.