The Bible Hurts Women

The mistreatment of women has been a plague to this world since the beginning of society. Only in the last century, or more significantly in the last half century, has it begun to show signs of positive progression towards gender equality. There are many factors that seem to hold back the progression, but none seem more powerful than The Holy Bible itself. The Bible is the single most influential book in the history of civilization. Genesis is probably the most read part of this sort of how-to book of life because it explains the creation of the world and of human kind. This part of the book has been somewhat reduced in power because of scientific discovery. However, the underlying messages may live on forever. The Bible, and most significantly Genesis, has many underlying messages that suggest the inferiority of women. First of all, in the second account of the creation, The Bible explains the creation of the woman. "So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he 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 (Genesis 2: 21, 22).

At first glance, this seems to be a clever explanation for why the man's rib structure is shaped differently than the woman. In fact, this could have been the purpose of this section. However, whatever its intentions were, are almost shadowed by the particular way it seems to display the woman as dependent on man. It may not come out and say plainly that woman is inferior to, or dependent on man, but when read, it could certainly provide some sort of justification for a man to treat a woman less than a fellow man. The fact that woman was created from man, suggests that woman was an afterthought and would not exist if it were not for the sacrifice of the man's rib. Also, the woman is brought to the man, as it almost seems like a gift. Therefore, a man who reads The Bible could be no more than two pages into it and could immediately develop a feeling of superiority over women.