Thomas Aquinas' Twofold Subjection Explained, Part 6

Equal But Different

Because equality was erased in the 13th century, women deacons vanished, as did women bishops and elders. When equality before God was returned in the 20th century, theologians had a difficult time reconciling the equality of men and women with traditional theology. If men and women are equal, why should the man have authority over the woman? "Equal but different" was coined to explain why women should be subservient to men, but how exactly does it work?

If men and women are equal and created in the image of God, a concept that was considered to be heresy in the 19th century when women were considered inferior (because of Thomas Aquinas' synthesis of Aristotle's philosophy with medieval theology), and subjected because of the sole guilt of Eve (because of Jerome's translation of Genesis 3:16 in the Vulgate), why was the man given authority?

The answer: no one knows.

When women became legally grownups in 1920 when they finally become eligible to vote, it was suddenly impossible to continue to argue that they were inferior. But if women weren't inferior, why did God give the man authority over the woman? "Equal but different" was supposed to explain why God gave the man authority: because men and women are different, the woman was given the role of bearing and rearing children and the man was given the role of leading. This was a necessary division, for if family is the meaning of life, the woman's role is easily defined, but what about the man? Without authority he would be little other than the woman's assistant whose role is to help the woman become a mother and then support the mother and child through hard labor. Not a very glorious role. So, to prevent the man from becoming the woman's servant, he had to become the women's leader.

But what if Jerome was right that men and women were created equal, what need was there for authority in the garden? No hard labor or homemaking existed. Family was not the meaning of life, just part of life; the roles of men and women were identical, and consisted of taking care of the garden, and talking to God in the cool of the evening. God did not place the woman in a box, nor did the man roam the garden on his own; instead, the two were found together when the serpent came for a visit.

If Thomas Aquinas had not subjected the woman to the man in the 13th century, there would never have been doubt any about the equality of men and woman as God's image bearers. All of this was changed when the crusaders brought back the writings of Aristotle, and the inferiority of the woman became solidified into an entrenched dogma that would take 700 years for theologians to remove.