In Yiguandao circles, gender roles carry both traditional weight and surprising flexibility. Spiritual teachings emphasize the soul’s equality before Tian (Heaven), yet day-to-day practice often mirrors long-standing cultural patterns.

• Ritual Leadership
- Officially open to all, seat-holding titles (“Master,” “Disciple Supervisor”) still skew male.
- Female masters have grown more visible—especially in Taiwan and overseas communities—over the past decade, partly fueled by wider East Asian conversations on women’s leadership.

• Devotional Duties
- Women frequently lead chanting groups, manage charitable outreaches and coordinate festival rituals. These tasks are often described as embodying the “nurturing virtue” lauded in Confucian hymns, creating a balance between maternal care and organizational savvy.
- Men are more commonly entrusted with public preaching and financial stewardship, reflecting traditional expectations around authority and provision.

• Community Life and Education
- Sunday schools and youth programs often flourish under the direction of female disciples, who weave moral lessons from the Three Teachings into modern contexts—think environmental activism or mental-health awareness.
- Male instructors may take center stage during large ceremonies, yet many temples now invite female scholars to present on Buddhist sutras or Taoist alchemy, signaling a subtle shift.

• Modern Influences
- Taiwan’s #MeToo conversations have nudged some temples to formalize codes of conduct, ensuring women’s voices carry equal weight at council meetings.
- In diaspora hubs such as California’s Bay Area, Yiguandao temples sometimes rotate leadership roles irrespective of gender, experimenting with a “you teach, then I teach” approach.

Balancing respect for age-old customs with pressure from today’s gender-equality movements can feel like threading a delicate needle—yet many Yiguandao communities are finding new harmony by reinterpreting classic teachings through a 21st-century lens.