Does God create men and women as equals, or are men to rule over women?

I get asked this question a lot, actually. That and, how can you say from the Bible that it is permissible for a woman to be a preacher? For now, let’s just deal with the general role of a woman and save the question of a woman in ministry for another time.

I’d like to look first at Genesis 2: 18-24.  

“The LORD God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field. But for Adam no suitable helper was found. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out ofthe man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman, for she was taken out of man.  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.”

This text says that the first woman was made out of a man and for man. Some say this means women are inferior to men. However, we must realize that the woman is called a helpmate or helper in this text. Some wrongly associate that word with the role of a servant (like a butler or a maid) who is treated in society as inferior to those they serve. Yet the Hebrew word being translated here actually implies equal partner in Hebrew. The idea is that man and woman are to help each other equally

It is also important to realize that the order does not show superiority, though some try to claim it does by saying “since Adam was made first, he is more important”. Remember, Jesus was also born after Adam made. Is Jesus inferior to Adam? The Bible makes it clear Jesus is superior to Adam and in fact is the new Adam. The reason for this order in how man and woman are created is to teach a lesson about interdependency. By being created alone, we find that on his own, Adam is incomplete. The man is incomplete without a helpmate (in this case a woman). As we will see, the Bible also describes the woman as incomplete without man.

If you read the verses before this section, you find that Genesis 1 describes the creation of humanity as being “in the image of God” and “male and female” (Genesis 1:27). This points toward both Adam & Eve as image of God equally and incomplete without each other. Adam's creation then was incomplete until Eve was made. Eve was incomplete without Adam being there.

Let’s look next at 1 Corinthians 11:11-12. “In the Lord, however, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as woman came from man, so also man is born of woman. But everything comes from God.” Here we see a passage in the New Testament that also dispels the myth that women are created as unequal to men. It is not in Christ man over woman, or woman over man. But both need each other. Just as Eve did not come about without Adam, men do not enter the world without women giving birth to them. Man comes from woman, woman came from man.

But what about some of the tougher, more violent seeming passages that almost make it sound like the woman is a wild beast needing to be tamed by the man? For instance, let’s look at Genesis 3:16. “To the woman he said, I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."

  This verse says woman would desire man and he would rule over her. Doesn't this mean women were made by God to ruled over by men? That men are more natural leaders? Again, let's look at the context and not just pick verses out of the Bible without seeing the story they are a part of. First of all, the Hebrew has more the sense “domineer” and “exploit” than simple leadership. This is a description, then, of men abusing women, not men merely being leaders in the home. So this is not saying men will lead but abuse and domineer. If this is a description of God's command, it would be a command not for men to lead but to abuse and mistreat women. Yet that is hardly how we are told men should treat women as we will see in our final passage.

Let’s look finally at Ephesians 5: 22-24. “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

Here women are told to submit to their husbands. At times this is quoted by folks who oppose women's right as if the meaning is that women should blindly obey their husbands and as if their husbands should rule over them. Again, verses are being lifted out of the Bible without regard to their context. The context is the command in v. 21 -- “Submit to one another out of rreverence for Christ.” This is the thesis statement for the section about family relationships for Christians. What follows is a description of how people who see Christ as the center in their relationships should treat each other – as equals who put each other's needs before their own. It begins, yes, with telling wives to submit to their husbands. But then husbands are also told to submit -- “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Submitting to another means putting their needs ahead of your own. Here the husbands are told to treat their wives like Jesus treated us. Jesus laid down his life for us, putting our needs ahead of his own wants, needs, comfort, and desire. In the same way husbands are to submit to their wives.

We see from all of this that God views women as equal to men, and created them as such, both men and women in His image.