Discussion evolved around just one line of text in another thread,
“Kiṁ pana vo, kumārā, itthiyā”ti?
“But, young men, what use is a woman to you?”
This comes from The Long Chapter of the Vinaya, section 11.
SuttaCentral
The account of a fine group of people
When the Buddha had stayed at Benares
for as long as he liked, he set out wandering toward Uruvelā. At a certain point he left the road, entered a forest grove, and sat down at the foot of a tree.Just then a fine group of thirty friends and their wives were enjoying themselves in that forest grove. Because one of them did not have a wife, they had given him a prostitute. While they were all carelessly enjoying themselves, that prostitute took that man’s possessions and ran away. To help their friend, they all went searching for that woman. And as they walked about that forest grove, they saw the Buddha seated at the foot of a tree. They approached him and said, “Sir, have you by any chance seen a woman by herself?”
“But, young men, what use is a woman to you?”
They told him what had happened.
“What do you think is better for you: that you search for a woman, or that you search for yourselves?”
“It’s better for us to search for ourselves.”
“Well then, sit down, and I’ll give you a teaching.”
Saying, “Yes, Sir,” those friends bowed to the Buddha and sat down.
The Buddha then gave them a progressive teaching: talk on generosity, talk on morality, talk on heaven; and he revealed the danger, degradation, and defilement in worldly pleasures, and the benefit of renunciation. When the Buddha knew that their minds were ready, supple, without hindrances, joyful, and confident, he revealed the teaching unique to the Buddhas: suffering, its origin, its end, and the path. And just as a clean and stainless cloth absorbs dye properly, so too, while they were sitting right there, they experienced the stainless vision of the Truth: “Anything that has a beginning has an end.”
They had seen the Truth, had reached, understood, and penetrated it; they had gone beyond doubt and uncertainty, had attained to confidence, and had become independent of others in the Teacher’s instruction. And they said to the Buddha, “Venerable Sir, we wish to receive the going forth in your presence; we wish to receive the full ordination.” The Buddha said, “Come, monks. The Teaching is well-proclaimed. Practice the spiritual life to make a complete end of suffering.” And that was the full ordination of those venerables.
Bhante @Akaliko has already provided helpful comment, which reminded us to consider the whole context of the text: thank you Bhante!
The Buddha taught about abandoning all identification for everyone, females and males alike; yet he lived in a specific time and place and taught people who knew no other society. That society had socio-cultural norms different from our own societies. (See post #41below for a very clear exposition of this. – EDITED after two days.) As a result we have to concede that it can be uncomfortable for Buddhist women to read things in the texts which, from the modern point of view, seem very confronting, so I’m going to call on the help of two more venerables to share their wisdom: Ajahn @Brahmali, who translated the whole Vinaya for SuttaCentral and Ayya @Suvira, who is a Buddhist woman and a scholar, are you available and able to offer help?