Despite remarkable progress in attaining equality with men, there is still one professional institution, conservative by its very definition, that women still struggle to breach: the Church. Whether Anglican or Catholic (or Jewish or Muslim), the Abrahamic religions were for thousands of years patriarchal, and that legacy is still felt in their resistance to women reaching high ranks. But some progress has been made: from a categorical refusal to allow women into priesthood, the Anglican Church began considering the issue, then voting, and finally approving.

On this day, November 11, in 1992, the General Synod of the Church of England voted heavily in favor of ordaining women priests. This was the second vote in five years on the issue, and cleared final institutional hurdles towards ordainment.

The Anglican communities abroad jumped out ahead of England on this matter. While the Anglican Synod was debating for a decade, three bishops of the U.S. Episcopal Church irregularly ordained women as priests in 1974. Canada followed suit the next year. By 1989 the Episcopal Church of New Zealand had a woman bishop.