As regards your question concerning the membership of the
Universal House of Justice; there is a Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Bahá in which He
definitely states that the membership of the Universal House of Justice is
confined to men, and that the wisdom of it will be fully revealed and
appreciated in the future. In the local, as well as the National Houses of
Justice, however, women have the full right of membership. It is, therefore,
only to the International House of Justice that they cannot be elected...
(From a letter dated 28 July 1936 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an
individual believer, quoted by the Universal House of Justice in a letter dated
May 31, 1988)
