Master Dōgen on equality.

Dogēn strongly believed that both women and men, were equally worthy of studying the Dharma, and both had the potential to reach complete realisations. This naturally seems obvious to us today but in the thirteenth century, his revolutionary view challenged his students to go beyond the cultural prejudice.

“If we discriminate against women because we see them merely as objects of sexual desire, do we also discriminate against all men for the same reason? What is the fault of women? What is the virtue of men? There are unwholesome men, and there are wholesome women. The aspiration to hear dharma and leave household does not depend on being female of male (Tanahashi, Levitt, 2013: 77)”.