This is very controversial, but unfortunately this is because there is a lack of sources on the social status of women in pre-Christian Scandinavia. We do know of some female property-holders and inheritors, and women do sometimes play prominent roles in the sagas. Likely, the role of women was not as much institutionalised as it is under the church, but what this actually means for their status is unclear. The argument that Christianisation caused a more peaceful, and hence more feminine, way of gaining status has also been brought forward, and women sometimes played a role in the actual conversion process as well. The primary way of attaining social status as war-leader was not accessible to pre-Christian women either, so this might also have been a factor why women sometimes chose to convert before men. Note, however, that the significance of gender for status might not be so prominent in the highest or the lowest social strata in both Christian and pre-Christian societies.