When the Gayatri mantra is offered men, they are offered also sacred thread, and girls, they are not offered sacred thread. If their husband is a brahmana, she automatically becomes brahmana because wife is considered to be the half, better half. She is the better portion. So she automatically becomes better brahmana [laughter]. So better brahmana does not require any thread. There is a Bengali proverb, ya va nauket poiyete darkana naya [?]. The proverb is that in India if one has got sacred thread, he is immediately understood that he must be belonging to the higher caste, brahmana, ksatriya, or vaisya. But if somebody knows that he is brahmana or ksatriya,
he doesn't require to show the sacred thread. Similarly, the wives of brahmana is already known that he [she] is brahmana, so she does not require to show the sacred thread. So don't be sorry because you will not be offered the sacred thread.

(Srila Prabhupada, at the initiation of Satyabhama Dasi — July 26, 1968, Montreal)