本文旨在藉由臺南在地的祀神傳說，結構性地探討女性成神的條件、途徑與方法。研究指出未婚而亡的女性較易成神，因其不符合父系社會的繼嗣原則，淪為不安定的鬼，但又因未受性與生產的污染，保有潔淨與貞節，故較能轉化成神。婚姻是決定女性成神的重要因素，冥婚的女性較難進入祖先的安定狀態，仍具有朝神轉化的動能；女性亦可經由男性神明的迎娶而成神，是一條簡單便捷卻又難以自主的途徑。成神的女性大多生前具有道德及神異的表現，死後則以顯靈來展現自身的「不同凡響」，或有益地方的功績，尤其透過靈媒從事濟世服務，由「排他性」進入「開放性」，向外擴大群眾的基礎，更是成神的關鍵。這些女性的成神之道，反映傳統父權社會對女性的控制與壓抑，也對「神、鬼、祖先」的理論，提供性別角度的思考。

The purpose of this paper is to study the legends of local deities in Tainan to structurally deal with the conditions, paths and methods for females to become goddesses. The research results pointed out that those females who died before marriage were easier to become goddesses. It is due to the inconformity with the principle of continuing their clans in the patrilineal society, so they would fall to become unstable ghosts. However, as they were not contaminated by sex and birth giving and thus still maintained their cleanliness and chastity, they were able to transform themselves into goddesses more easily. Marriage is an important factor determining whether a female is able to become a goddess. Females in ghost marriages are harder to enter the stable status as their ancestors did, so they still have the possibilities of transforming themselves into goddesses. Females could also ascend to become goddesses by marrying a god; this is an easy and quick approach but devoid of independence. Most females who became goddesses all showed moral and miraculous achievements while they were alive; and after their deaths, they displayed their ＂uniqueness＂ or benefited the local through epiphany. They especially served the world through psychics, from ＂exclusivity＂ to ＂openness,＂ and gradually expanded the foundation of their believers. This is also a key to becoming goddesses. These paths of females becoming goddesses reflected the control and depression of the patrilineal society over women and also provided us with a different point of view to rethink the theory of ＂gods, ghosts and ancestors＂ from the gender aspect.