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In describing religion on the island of Utopia, the treatment of women raises questions. The practice in which women must prostrate themselves to their husbands and admit their failings while the husbands must do nothing in return but forgive seems highly unfair, and demonstrates an assumption of superiority in the men. This is not all that surprising given the gender situation in the 16th century under which women were subservient to first their father, then their husband. However, women in Utopia are able to become priests, and this would have been shocking to Sir Thomas More's contemporaries. Even today, the Catholic Church does not allow female priests. At once, Utopia holds an implicit disregard for women, and offers them the chance at equality.
