I don't have the sources right to hand any longer, but I remember more than a few authors proposing that indeed one of the reasons Christianity increased in popularity so quickly was that in comparison to Judaism there was more of a role for women. To this day in Orthodox Jewish Shuls the women are just hurried off to the balcony. Sometimes there's even a screen. I've been to bar mitzvahs where that's where I had to sit, and a lot of the women just sit around gossiping. One old lady told me that "shul is for men".
In the early Church by way of contrast there were women deacons and preachers. Some "gnostic" versions of the Bible propose a huge role for Mary Magdalen. That ended, but the role of nuns in the church for many long centuries provided the only hope for education for women. There were also many erudite and productive nuns who were scribes, and who wrote on religious matters and influenced the politics of their day. They also had the opportunity to run convents which were, in effect, hospitals, farms, and craft centers.
One of my favorites was Hildegard of Bingen, who was a mystic, theologian, and composer, and the confidant of Popes. Her music is very lovely.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen
Another one was Catherine of Siena, a Tuscan, who was a theologian, a doctor of the church, and had great political influence and influence on the church as well. (She was technically a tertiary, no full time vows.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_of_Siena
The theology of St. Teresa of Avila is also quite interesting.
You can see that I was taught by frustrated intellectual nuns.
It was an outlet for them, but of course they had to sacrifice their sexuality to it, and often not by choice.
Still, there was no role for women at all in Judaism. In fact, a friend of mine told me that Orthodox men pray a verse that says thank you God for not making me a woman! I hope to heck it's not true. Can you imagine?
It's even worse in Islam.