Male and Female Created

By Melissa

Ewen and Ewen take a closer view on women in religion and their position in out current society in the beginning part of their chapter Male and Female Created He Them. The question raised is wether or not  there is an innate difference between the sexes that might distinguish women as less than men? The notion appeared that women were seen as less intellectual than men because they were denied access to higher education for so many decades. The fact is they are still denied some positions of power.

Eve was the first woman to be put down by religion and history. It has been said that it was her encounter with original sin that caused her and Adam to be expelled from the Garden of Eden, paradise. Some early stated that Eve and Adam were created at the same time in God's image. That is to say that God is both male and female. Other doctrines state that Adam was created in God's image and then Eve was created from Adam's rib, thus making her permanently less than Adam.

This act by Eve permanently marked women as the tainted sex and thus the priesthood could only be held by celibate men. Woman was created to be an object of male desire in the views of most religious sects. The male was then given the power to name her, rule her, and forever be stronger than her. God in most religions is viewed as the oppressor of women in my opinion. I believe society manipulated the idea of a "GOD" to hold control over women by stating that God made it so that they were less than man because they discovered original sin.

So are women naturally less in all ways to men or has society structured them to be that way? Before private property was established, women were seen as the central powers within many societies. Once the ability to pass on property from a man to his son, everything changed. As patriarchy began to work for human beings, women lost most of their freedoms.