I have to say that I assumed that the female Bishop in HTWW1 was from one of the 'fringier' bits of Hrestoli society and that the core of Hrestoli society has a 'blind spot' in its Ideal of Equality. ("But of course they are equal! Their husbands can rise to any rank!")
After the recent Council this may have changed. Some.
>REFORMED HRESTOLI (Mike Cule's church): women can be knights, but I
>expect it's rare, even for them.
>
Well, my basic idea is that women are born into the Menena class as a default as men are born into the Farmer class. But at the age of maturity people may try to get into another class that they think they are more suited for. Men always fail the tests to join the Menena class!
After a period of 'apprenticeship' people trying for the soldier, wizard (and for women Farmer) classes are either approved or returned to their default class.
Knighthood: I am dithering between making Knighthood a distinction that only the Soldier class can achieve or creating equivalent orders for the other classes.
Lordship is acheived through excellence in the class' activities. Women of the Menena class get status for raising healthy children. (Perhaps they get the title 'Dame'!)
But yes, female military knights are rare, even rarer than professional female soldiers are in real-world Western society.
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