This was said during some religious video shown in my highschool (by a company called "noomba" in a video promoting mothers if anyone wants to search for it) and I didn't believe it at first. This guy claimed that Paul in one of his letters promoted gender equality and that he was the first person in history to promote gender equality. Is this true?
The claim is probably made in reference to passages like Galatians 3:28-29
There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to the promise. (NRSV)
I would qualify any statement about it by saying that Paul's thought needs to be read in light of what else he has to say, what "Gender Equality" would even mean to his audience, and how this passage functions within Paul's broader thought. But that is likely where the claim is coming from.
I could discuss this passage in further depth if you wanted.
The religious video most likely was referring to Galatians 3:28: There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus..
However, it is also worthwhile to note that it was St Paul who said in 1 Timothy 2:12: But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. The former was supposedly written by Paul to the fledgling Gentile Christians in Galatia, central Anatolia. The latter was a series of counsels written to his delegate Timothy in Ephesus, a Greek city under the control of the Roman Empire on the west coast of modern-day Turkey. There are obviously egalitarian interpretations regarding the latter quote, which I think are discussed well on its [wikipedia] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1_Timothy_2:12) page.