I do realize there are women in the Church. And there is a place for women in the Church. Generally, it is a second class place. 

The honor accorded Saint Mary is miserly at best with great emphasis on her lack of divinity, her supposed meekness, her inability to get to heaven except by means of an 'assumption,' and her dispensation from original sin as if she would have been tainted otherwise. Not very inspiring. If a Church tries to limit women, then no one should be surprised if women look elsewhere for spiritual fulfillment. 

The artwork depicting Mary is great (except for those pieces that have her meekly looking at her feet like an awkward teenager). I would guess that there is more true spirituality in the great art than there is in all the writings by popes and bishops. NCR had an art contest for the millennium.  Too bad Mary was not included in that commemoration of the nativity of Jesus. How can you have a nativity without Mary? Time for another contest?