Women will do the housekeeping while cardinals pray for guidance

IN a message to the 1995 United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing the late Pope John Paul II wrote: “As far as personal rights are concerned there is an urgent need to achieve real equality in every area, equal pay for equal work, protection for working mothers, fairness in career advancement, equality of spouses with regard to family rights.”

He described "the full equality of man and woman in every walk of life" as "one of civilisation's great achievements". He pointed out that in the political realm at the "the highest levels of representation, national and international, women are showing that they can make as skilled a contribution as men."

The late Pope had a great reverence for the dignity of womanhood and he was an advocate also for all types of equality including gender equality with one noticeable and obvious exception.