The Pope will allow women to vote for the first time at a major global meeting of bishops in October, in a move hailed as historic.

The new rules announced on Wednesday will give five nuns the right to vote at the synod, which has a consultative role.

In the past, women could only attend the rally as observers.

According to the BBC, men will still have the majority of votes in this session.

However, the reforms are seen as a major move by the Roman Catholic Church, which has been dominated by men for centuries.

The US-based Conference on Women’s Ordination, which advocates for female priests, called the reform a “significant crack in the ceiling”.

“For years Vatican representatives and bishops have resisted, changing their positions at every session on the question of why women were not allowed to vote,” the group tweeted. “The unacknowledged cause has always been sexism.”

“In the near future we hope the synod will continue to develop into a fully representative body of God’s people.”

In a further break with tradition, Pope Francis announced that voting rights would also be extended to 70 selected lay people.

The Pope expressed the hope that half of those votes would be from women and young people.

Christopher Lamb, Vatican correspondent for Catholic news outlet The Tablet, told the BBC World Service’s Newshour program that the changes were “very important” for the future of the Church.

Mr Lamb predicted that the Pope would face “significant resistance” from some parts of the Church over this latest decision.