Looking for role models among the spiritual leaders of history? Look to the women in their lives

‘Unlike the men in their lives, Yasodhara, Khadijah and Mary Magdalen did not have spare days, weeks, or years to pray in a cave, wander the desert, or meditate under a tree.’ Photograph: Nenov/Alamy

Sometimes I think the entire point of religion is to help men behave more like women.

Members of a religious community are supposed to get along with each other, even if they don’t like each other. But women don’t need religious rules to teach them social graces. From birth, we are socialised to prioritise the needs of the collective above our own.