Christian women enjoyed a higher status than pagan women because of an initial shift in sex ratios, which resulted from Christian doctrines, which prohibited abortion and infanticide. Modern archeology and historical demography also helped with the status of women in the early church. A superior birthrate in Christian women also helped them gain a higher status. They also achieved a higher status due to the many advantages they had over pagan women.
For many years" men out numbered women in the Greco-Roman world, it was estimated that for every 131 males there were only about 100 females. This was caused from a high mortality rate and also abortion, which was a major cause of death among women in this period. Many things were different for Christian women, in Rome there was a 15/18 ratio of men to women, which would indicate that women were more, predominate then men. Another reason was because Christians prohibited all forms of infanticide and abortion; this helped the imbalance of men and women of the Christian religion. But this alone could not have been the only reason for the women outnumbering the men. The other factor in this was women were more likely to become Christians then men. Women in the church were predominately part of the upper classes of society. With this women influenced their husbands to "protect the church." If the master of the house became a Christian then all of the members of his house, which included servants and slaves, were expected to follow as well. .
An aspect that improved the women's status in the Christian culture was that Christians did not condone female infanticide. The view that was favored by more people was the fact that Christian women also condemned divorce, marital infidelity, polygamy, and incest. Like pagans, Christians prized female chastity, but unlike pagans Christian men were also urged to remain virgins until they married.
If a Christian woman was to become widowed she enjoyed many substantial advantages.
