"Are women competent, Venerable Lord, if they retire from
household life to the homeless state, under the doctrine and
discipline announced by the Tathāgata, to attain to the fruit of
conversion, to attain to a release from a wearisome repetition of
rebirths, to attain to saintship?" 4
And the Blessed One declared: "Women are competent, Ānanda, if
they retire from household life to the homeless state, under the
doctrine and discipline announced by the Tathāgata, to attain to
the fruit of conversion, to attain to a release from a wearisome
repetition of rebirths, to attain to saintship. 5
"Consider, Ānanda, how great a benefactress Pajāpatī has been.
She is the sister of the mother of the Blessed One, and as
foster-mother and nurse, reared the Blessed One after the death
of his mother. So, Ānanda, women may retire from household life
to the homeless state, under the doctrine and discipline
announced by the Tathāgata." 6
Pajāpatī was the first woman to become a disciple of the Buddha
and to receive the ordination as a bhikkhunī. 7