The Idea of Woman and her Image in Genesis
Our society that we are living in today is striding towards an overall equality, specifically trying to improve the role of women in society. Women have been undermined in society for years and years, how ever there still hasn't been that much change. But how did this male hierarchy come to be? The divide between women and men must have started somewhere. After reading multiple ancient religious texts, it is evident that the role of women has been diminished for a very long time. In these texts such as the Bible, specifically The Book of Genesis, men are put above women, and require women to obey and serve men, if women are mentioned at all. In many of these texts women are hardly even referenced at all, the main focus is on the “powerful” men. However, the rise of the feminist movement has put pressure for equal rights, and have called inquestion these traditional understandings of gender roles.
Over the past 200 years the women's rights movement has really started to pick up momentum in the US and around the world. The first major step being at seneca falls, where 300 women and men signed the Declaration of Sentiments, which called for the end of discrimination against women. Then in 1920, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed giving women the right to vote (MILLIGAN, 1) . Now In the US there are no fundamental laws that women don't have, making it seem like there is actually equality. How ever, there are social norms, for example people believe women should have to stay at home with the kids while the man goes and makes money for the family. These social norms that people tend to follow are actually holding women back from being equal to men. It seems like it is the “natural” way for many people. This is not just a coincidence that women are seen this way, people are influenced by many things, like religious texts. People look to religion, and these texts to get a fundamental feel for how the world generally works. The discriminated role that women play in several religious texts is a major reason why the social status of Women in society has not changed as much as it should.
Religions have such a large influence on people's base beliefs, and fundamentally shape people societal views. The book of genesis is the creation story for both Christianity and Judaissm, two of the most popular religions on this earth. In fact According to data from 2015, there are more than 2.3 billion people that practice some form of Christianity. This means that about one-third of the world’s total population follows this religion( Most Christian Countries Population. (2019-11-04)). WIth Billions of people worshiping these religions, the way that this creation story depicts women influences such a large proportion of the world. The depiction of women in the bible and the book of genesis makes women seem like they were made the inferior gender since humans were put into this world. The human creation story in the book of genesis creates this divide of men and women from the start, when God did not create male and female simultaneously. He created man first, and then women, creating this depiction that men were higher priority and more important than women. This creation story is about Adam and Eve. In this story Adam, the man, is created first and later on Eve is created from one of Adam's ribs to be Adam's companion.
Again, the thought that man was created first, and the purpose of women was to be the man's companion and helper is thrown upon the reader. ““It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.”(Genesis 2:18-23). In the story of human creation, women are depicted to be created as a companion to men. To have this strong and obvious of a message in a book that people worship higher than anything else in the world has led to the idea of women being inferior.
This idea of women being controlled by men is continued on throughout the story when Eve gets punished for doing something god tells them not to do. Her punishment was that she shall experience extreme pain during childbirth, and that while she will desire her husband, he will have control over her. The story continues to imply that mean are the superior gender and that women should serve men. Although these stories were written hundreds of years ago, they are still heavily worshiped to this day, leaving this lasting impression that women were made inferior.
Almost half of the population on this earth follows either Christianity or Judaism, and these religions have such power over people's lives and beliefs. Too see the role of women being so undervalued in texts such as these makes it seem like this is the way that we were created, men above women. These religions are holding back women from becoming truly equal in the everyday society we live in.
