To answer or attempt to explain some of the questions posed in chapter 1, such as why some Catholics have united with some Muslims to oppose equal rights for women, why some groups of men and especially women keep emphasizing male-female differences rather than gender egalitarianism, and why women’s status, especially their sexuality, has become such a focus of attention especially in nationalist and ethnonationalist religious contexts, we concentrate in this chapter on three topics or issues to provide background and insight. The first topic is how the Catholic and Muslim religions recognize women. The second concerns the historical similarities and differences between Catholic and Muslim responses to modernity in different contexts. The third concerns the centrality of religion and spirituality to social change for women and women’s agency in redefining and transforming parameters of modernity and religion.