Christianity treatment of women...
Following Aquinas, canon law decreed that women could not witness a will. Neither could they testify in disputes over wills, nor in criminal proceedings. They could not practice medicine, law or any other profession, nor could they hold any public office. Here is a piece of reasoning from two famous Roman Catholic scholars: after saying that women are intellectually like children, they explain why women are given to the practice of witchcraft:
I) But the natural reason is that she is more carnal than a man, as is clear from her many carnal abominations. And it should be noted that there was a defect in the formation of the first woman, since she was formed from a bent rib, that is, rib of the breast, which is bent as it were in a contrary direction to a man. And since through this defect she is an imperfect animal, she always deceives.
II) Women, as inferiors to and possessions of men, were not free to choose their own marriage partners:
Only those who have authority over a woman, and from whose custody she is sought as wife, can make a lawful marriage.