In Greek, Roman, and Jewish society, women were generally expected to wear head coverings in public. Greek and Roman women would remove their head coverings when worshipping in a temple. This was different from the Jewish custom, according to which women had to keep on their head coverings for worship.
Since the first Christians were of Jewish background, it would have been natural for the first Christian women to wear head coverings during worship. This custom would have been affirmed by Paul himself in all the churches that he helped to found (see 1 Corinthians 11:16).
Yet the Corinthian church soon consisted of both Jews and Gentiles (Acts 18:6). By the time of Paul’s writing, the need has arisen for defending the custom of head coverings. Paul does this by arguing that a woman dishonors her head
when she prays or prophesies with the head uncovered.
Quite possibly, the head
that is dishonoured in this case is the woman’s own head. That is to say, a woman does herself an injustice when she takes in the position of a man. Alternatively, Paul might be referring to the woman’s husband, who is her head and who is dishonoured when she worships with an uncovered head.
5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven.