Final answer:
Buddhism played a role in advancing gender equality by offering women a more respectable status compared to Brahmanist teachings, despite maintaining certain patriarchal structures. This contributed to the broader feminist movement where women, already active in social reforms, began to challenge gender inequalities, including within religious contexts.
Step-by-step explanation:
Although many religious teachings have reinforced traditional gender roles, the Buddhist religion played an early role in facilitating a shift towards gender equality. Contrary to Brahmanist teachings that viewed women's genitalia as impure and excluded them from public religious ceremonies, Buddhism offered women an elevated status and greater participation in spiritual life. However, women soon realized that Buddhism still preserved patriarchal structures - for instance, monasteries were segregated by gender, with women typically given inferior positions. Despite this initial promise of gender equality, male dominance in most religions remained largely unchallenged.
In the context of the feminist movement, efforts such as those of the abolitionist movement served as a catalyst for women to challenge the status quo of gender inequality. With their participation in various reform movements, including those aimed at ending slavery, women started to recognize and advocate against the systemic inequalities they faced. This was a critical step towards the development of feminist theories that recognized and sought to dismantle the structures of gender inequality, including those in religious institutions.