由於佛教主張「眾生皆有佛性」的平等思想，相較於世界上其他宗教「男尊女卑」的教義與規範，較無明顯的性別歧視。但隨著1960年代第二波女性主義運動興起，歐美一些女性主義佛教學者開始關注佛教體制中的女權問題，例如美國學者葛羅絲（Rita Gross）在其《父權之後的佛教：佛教的女性主義歷史、分析、與重構》中，便廣泛探討佛教史與僧團中所存在的貶抑女性問題，指出南傳佛教出家女性無法受比丘尼戒、佛教史上女性地位的低落、「八敬法」、大乘佛教經典對女身的貶抑……等議題。（Gross, 1992）近年來，台灣的佛教學界也不乏對這些議題的討論，並舉出台灣尼師僧團的積極、入世經驗，做為佛教性別平權的有力參照，也凸顯了台灣尼師僧團關懷、參與社會議題的特質。 沿著當今學界重探佛教女性觀的理路而下，本文旨在探討佛教史上不同時期教義對性別關係的影響，尤其是教義所折射出的不同女性觀；透過對印度佛教小乘、大乘與密乘時期不同女性身份與地位的耙梳，來闡述佛教教義與性別關係的緊密連結。藉此，可發現隨著大乘教義的開展，女性的身份有了大幅進展與變化，尤其是在密乘中，呈現出迥異於原始佛教與小乘佛教的性別平等觀，具體展現了佛教眾生平等的核心教義。對佛教研究中較被忽略的性別範疇而言，此論題不僅具有開啟宗教與性別跨領域對話的指標意義，也可回應西方學界女性主義佛學研究對佛教女性身份認同議題的批判，並反映出佛教性別觀的某種「緣起」色彩，即教義依受法對象的認知差異而權宜通變的多元、包容、與開放性。

Buddhist teachings expound that all sentient beings are endowed with Buddha nature, which indicates the concept of gender equality in terms of Buddhism; therefore, Buddhism seems less sexist than other world religions. But since the rise of the second feminist movement in the 1960s, Buddhist feminists have raised several women issues relevant to Buddhist institutions and history. In Buddhism after Patriarchy: A Feminist History, Analysis, and Reconstruction of Buddhism, Gross surveys discriminative attitudes toward women in Early Buddhism, Buddhist scriptures, and monastic systems. Recently, some scholars of Buddhist studies in Taiwan have been aware of those issues as well, and tried to take the examples of Taiwanese nunneries as evidences of gender equality in Buddhism. This is especially true of Taiwanese Humanistic Buddhism, which emphasizes the role of nuns and women in Engaging Buddhist Activities of modern society. This paper is aimed to discuss the relationship between Buddhist doctrines and gender during different stages of Indian Buddhism—from Early Buddhism to Mahayana Buddhism to Tantric Buddhism—to explore that Buddhist doctrines do influence the Buddhist views of women. That is, as Mahayana Buddhism established and developed gradually in history, the status of women in Buddhism had improved significantly and then got a huge, dramatic turn in Tantric Buddhism which represented Buddhist doctrine of equanimity fully. The discussion and analysis in this paper show that Buddhism is truly concerned with equality and impartiality, which indirectly reply to feminist critics of Buddhist patriarchy. Also, it reflects the interdependent tendency of the Buddhist view of gender which is plural, flexible, and updated with time and the audience.