A female is never awarded the order of Sannyasam. Because a female is never considered independent and Sannyasam was never awarded to any female in the past by the great Acaryas like Sankara, Ramanuja etc. The female Sannyasins are to be immediately understood as pretenders or prostitutes. In India they have organized so many organizations where specially young females are maintained to attract rich women-hunters who pretend to pose as righteous in the society. This is the age of Kali which plunders away spiritual sense of the human being and it is only the Divine Grace of Lord Caitanya Who can protect us from all these dangerous pitfalls.

(From Srila Prabhupada's letter to: Brahmananda  —  San Francisco 14 March, 1967)