Both received the laying on of hands by the bishop, who invoked the Holy Spirit to impart the grace of the ministry of the diaconate, using identical words. Both were vested with a stole as a distinctive sign of their ministry. Both received Communion from the bishop and both were handed the chalice with the precious Blood. The impressive parallelism has recently caused the Orthodox theologian Evangelos Theodorou to join a number of Catholic theologians in declaring the diaconate of women to be as sacramental as that of men. Perhaps we should go back to basics here.
Sacraments are, by definition, sacred signs.
These two elements make up the substance of the sacramental sign. Where we find them present, we know that the sacrament has been validly administered. And being precise in details here is no luxury, as the Catholic Church has always insisted. These constitute the essence of the sacramental sign, by which everyone knows that this person has been truly ordained. Additional symbols are the conferring of the sacrament during the liturgy of Mass right in front of the altar, the laying on of the distinctive vestment and the handing over of an instrument of the ministry,such as a chalice.