Women and the resurrection
In fact they had no such role. Paul, the earliest christian writer, mentioned all those who allegedly saw the resurrected christ. He didn't include any women among them. The story of Mary Magdalene and the tomb was pure invention. Presumably it was conjured up sometime after Paul's letters, which don't mention it, and the first gospel, which does. Scholars maintain that discovery of the "empty tomb" on the third day isn't historical. It's just one of many inventions to fulfill prophecy. Likewise, the "tomb" never existed. As Crossan and Ehrman have noted, Jesus most likely wasn't buried, but ended up as vulture or dog food. The "tomb" was invented to hide this embarrassing truth. But why make up women going to it?
The gospel writers had no choice simply because the male disciples weren't available. Right after the arrest of Jesus, they fled. Not all of them necessarily went back to Galilee but all probably left Jerusalem. Only the women followers remained to witness the fate of christ. The body of their "messiah" was ravaged. Soon, however, Cephas (Peter) and a few others had visions of Jesus. Convinced he had been exalted, they were fired with enthusiasm and determined to convert the world. At least two disciples, Cephas and James, returned to Jerusalem (where Paul eventually met them). They reconnected with the women followers and told them about their fantastic experience and its implication. In light of what they had witnessed, the women probably refused to believe it. How could Jesus have come back to life if he had been ripped apart by dogs? But Cephas and others were convinced they had seen Jesus, alive and in a new, heavenly body. Their view overshadowed the truth. Knowing that women had to be the ones who saw the empty tomb--since the male disciples had fled--the gospel writers portrayed Mary Magdalene as the first to discover and announce the resurrection of Jesus. In two other gospel versions, Joanna and others accompanied Mary to the "tomb." Inconsistent and patently fake, these stories conceal the awful truth.