Why did the Bhakti movement attract women?

The Bhakti
movement attracted women because it liberalized the process of religious worship.  Prior to the
movement, religious worship in Hinduism was very formalized and structured with a Brahmin being
the only individual who was sanctioned as being able to engage in the purest form of religious
worship.  This was something that closed many doors to women.  The Bhakti movement changed this
in stressing that the tenets of religious worship are open to all.  Merely chanting the Lord's
name is something in which men and women can find peace within the divine.  

The Bhakti movement's emphasis on the universality in religious worship as well as
stressing the idea that there are not "chosen" people, but rather an inclusivity that
pulls everyone into the graces of the divine proved to be attractive to women.  Rather than
being told of what doors of religious worship are closed off to them, many women found the
inclusive stress of the Bhakti movement something quite appealing and attractive to women who
simply wanted the chance to worship in the glory of the divine.

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