For centuries, women have been subjugated by men. They are treated like second class citizens. Men use old, outdated arguments to hold these women in their domestic sphere; however, women are emerging out of that sphere and coming into the real world. For centuries, women were considered evil and easily tempted by the devil. This believe remained prevalent, in some form of another, in the modern era. Even though men today do not believe that women are innately evil, they still do not allow women all the rights of a man in the churches. This brings into question serious issues as to whether women will ever fully enjoy the freedoms of equality or will they continue for all time to be considered lower creatures.

Within Middle Eastern religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, women have been considered second class citizens for a very long time. The reason the women are treated like second class citizens is because the men believe that women tempted them; thus, making the woman the embodiment of evil. Women are also evil because their temptation caused the rest of humanity to suffer from original sin. However, since men could not look at a woman and be filled with lust or temptation, the men of Middle Eastern religions declared women to be unclean, evil creatures out to lure men and control them. This fear of men being controlled by women allows men to rise to power and control women first. Ironically, this view of women as evil and men should control women is not limited to the Middle Eastern religions. Men in the Eastern religions as well believed that women were the embodiment of evil; thus, allowing women to be subjugated by men freely. This social organization of the subjugation of women is slowly becoming more equal; however, even though women are becoming more equal in secular society, women are not enjoying equality as fast in religious organizations than they are in secular organizations. Men still considered the natural leaders and the women are still considered to be inferior to a man. Hopefully, these old traditions will die out eventually. [1]

Men did no always believe women were such manipulative and deceiving creatures. Sociologists have found that women and men were equal in status in horticultural societies. Men hunt for food while women take care of the house and tend the gardens. The woman’s share of the food supply is generally more important, because it is stable. However, when men begin to domesticate animals, such as the cow, the pig, and the chicken, we notice that men also begin to take more and more control over women. Until this time, the images of the higher deities are generally associated with women. Since women are the mothers and caregivers of the children, people often viewed the world has being created or maintained by a mother goddess. However, this changed in horticultural societies at the same time women became subjugated by the men. This did not happen before because the men were busy hunting animals and did not have time to think about theological matters. It is when men begin to sit around at home doing nothing that the idea of women being inferior is created, perhaps because a man could not stand being ordered around by women or feel like being useless around the home in the horticultural societies. [2]

When woman become evil according to men in horticultural societies, women also become evil in theology. At first the mother goddesses remained, but a trickster or sinister element was added to her persona. In the Middle East, the deity became male and suggested a matrilineal was inferior. For example, in the Old Testament of the Bible, we notice how the names of men are frequently mentioned but the names of women are not important to the story, especially genealogy story. Also, Eve is designated to be Adam’s helper in Genesis 2:18; thus, placing her in a subordinate role to Adam. We also see men protecting other men, but casting out women to bear the brunt of an assault. Such is the case of Sodom and Gomorrah, where Lot offers his two virgin daughters to the men who want to rape the two men staying with Lot. The idea that a father would give away his daughters freely to rapist in order to save two strangers is mind-blowing, but considering the value placed on women at the time, it is a normal occurrence. Also in the Jewish tradition, women are not allowed to sit with men in the synagogues. Women are not counted as part of the congregation either. Furthermore, women are discouraged from reading or studying the Torah, or even learning to read the Hebrew text for that matter. Even today, some Orthodox Jews repeat an ancient prayer which states: “Blessed art thou, O Lord our God, King of the Universe who has not made me a woman.” [3]

Christianity furthered the view of women as second class citizens, plainly stating in the theological text that women were inferior and should not be treated equally. Christianity’s view of women as inferior did not stem from the teachings of Jesus, who spoke to women as equals in the Jewish society that treated women like property. In fact, there are several instances in the Bible where Jesus goes out of his way to help women. The idea of a woman as being inferior to a man in Christianity stems from Paul’s teachings and the church during the Middle Ages, perhaps additions made to the original texts in order to justify the subjugations of women. Nonetheless, women are viewed as tempters and seducers in the Bible. While they are below man, a woman can easily drag a man down to her level using the power of persuasion. Since women are the embodiment of evil, they cannot speak in church nor can they go into public without covering their head. This is made clear in three passages in the Bible, 1 Corinthians 11:2-16, 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, and I Timothy 2:11-15. Furthermore, Christian reserves the right to make decisions by the man and the scriptures can only be interpreted by men because a woman’s mind is inferior and easily tempted by the devil. [4]

Perhaps the most profound of the medieval subjugations of women is the belief that women are easily tempted by the devil. Since Adam was created first, men were believed to be more important. Also, because Eve was the one who was tempted by the serpent, all women since then bare the responsibility of original sin. This act of temptation spoiled the reputation of women afterward. The belief that women were easily tempted by the devil was taken further in the Malleus Maleficarum. In this classic manual on how to hunt witches, women are singled out as deviant creatures. It states that women are more impressionable; thus, women are more easily turned to witchcraft than men. This book, and others like it, helped to hold women in subordinate roles in society. The inquisition during the late Middle Ages targeted outspoken women who refused to accept the status quo. The women tried and convicted were most often outcasts or women who refused to be subordinate to men and stayed maids their entire lives. However, living a life as a maiden outside of a monastic order did not allow a woman to fulfill the role of child bearer and mother.# [5]

The Christian religion sets up a situation to make a woman naturally subordinate to a man, dependant upon him for stability, and intellectually inferior to a man. This belief is one of the greatest evils of our time. Women make up half of the population of the world and yet men look down upon them as evil and sinister creatures. The nature of a woman is no more evil than the nature of a man. Both are influenced by socialization in their cultures. Women are allowed to express emotion more freely, which makes them appear weaker to men. [6]

It is important to point out that the subjugation of women and the belief that women are innately evil is not only a Judeo-Christian concept. In India, women became second class citizens around 500 B.C.E. By this time in Hinduism, it was thought that there was no possible way that a woman could reach nirvana on her own. It goes as far as to say that women have to be reincarnated as a man before they can reach nirvana. Women in the Hindu culture were play the role as child bearer and mother. Women could not enter a religious order because that violated her role in society. Buddhism, a new religion in the Hindu world, would offer women the role equal to men, but that soon disappeared as the greater Hindu culture dominated. In the first few centuries of Buddhism, women could seek refuge in a Buddhist monastery so that she was not forced into marriage and she could teach theology. However, the role of the woman as a housewife and child bearer became popular and woman’s monastic orders slowly disappeared. [7]

The fact that an entire group of people is singled out and demonized by man is completely and utterly wrong. While trying to find the cause of evil in society, it is wrong to stereotype and invest that guilt in a single class of people. In this case, that class is womanhood. But what is more shocking, given the knowledge of science and the rise of the feminist movement, is the slow acceptance of women as equal in the religious realm. Men continue to subjugate women in the church by restricting their roles and not allowing them the full powers of a man. While the role of a woman has expanded in the last three decades, it is not expanding as fast as it is in the secular world.

1. Ronald L. Johnstone, Religion in Society: A Sociology of Religion, eight edition (Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2007), 243; George H. Tavard, Woman in Christian Tradition (London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1973), 1-5; Mary Daly, The Church and the Second Sex (New York: Harper and Row, 1968), 11-19; and Russel C. Prohl, Woman in the Church: A Restudy of Woman‘s Place in Building the Kingdom (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1957), 11-16.

2. Johnstone, Religion in Society, 244-45.

3. Johnstone, Religion in Society, 249-50; Tavard, Woman in Christian Tradition, 106; Daly, The Church, 33-37;and Prohl, Woman in the Church, 36-39.

4. Johnstone, Religion in Society, 249-52; Tavard, Woman in Christian Tradition, 27-30; Daly, The Church, 19-21, 37-41; and Prohl, Woman in the Church, 24-27, 31-35.

5. Tavard, Woman in Christian Tradition, 108; and Prohl, Woman in the Church, 38-39.

6. Johnstone, Religion in Society, 251; and Tavard, Woman in Christian Tradition , 106-107.

7. Johnstone, Religion in Society, 247-49.

Daly, Mary. The Church and the Second Sex. New York: Harper and Row, 1968.

Johnstone, Ronald L. Religion in Society: A Sociology of Religion, eight edition. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2007.

Prohl, Russel C. Woman in the Church: A Restudy of Woman‘s Place in Building the Kingdom. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1957.

Tavard, George H. Woman in Christian Tradition. London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1973.