The way the Christmas joke goes, Mary and Joseph were hoping for a girl. Of course, that did not happen. While women in too many cultures are routinely degraded and denied opportunities to live better lives, the most powerful country in the world will send yet another woman as its senior emissary. Is there anything more hope-filled for the women told by church or state they are not full human beings and they do not image Christ?

(Phyllis Zagano is senior research associate-in-residence at Hofstra University and author of several books in Catholic Studies.)