As the entire Christian world awaits black or white smoke after the first vote at the Vatican, some Catholic activists released pink smoke from fireworks and demanded that women be allowed to seek ordination.
"We say to the cardinals, you cannot continue to ignore 50 percent of the Catholic population, you cannot go into a closed room and discuss the future of the Church without half the Church," said Miriam Duignan.
"Whoever they choose must be brave enough to properly address the issue of women's inclusion, because so far it hasn't been the case, not even by Pope Francis," said Duignan, of the Wijngaards Institute in Cambridge.
In the global church as a whole, women have begun to take on some senior lay roles, a process that accelerated slightly under the papacy of Pope Francis.
But even those who have studied theology and church ministry are excluded from the priesthood, and only priests hold the highest leadership roles.