IS WOMAN INFERIOR TO MAN?
Many, many years ago a great council was held to discuss the question
whether women had souls. I forget the conclusion which that learned
assembly arrived at; but what is certain is that now most men do believe
that women have souls, although a great number of them are still of
opinion that woman is a being inferior to man.
They hold that man is the lord of creation, the masterpiece, the last
word of the Almighty.
Now, is this really the case? First, God made the earth, then light,
after which He created fishes, birds, and animals of all sorts. Then He
said: 'I will now create a being far above all the other animals.'
He took some mud; mark well, I say, some mud, and made Adam. In His
wisdom He thought that mud was not good enough to make woman out of, and
for her creation he took matter which had already been purified by His
Divine breath, and He took part of Adam, and out of it made Eve.
Now, surely, my dear fellow-men, you must own that either mud is better
stuff than yourself, or you must confess that woman has a nobler origin
than you. You can't get out of it.
Please notice the order of creation: Fish, birds, animals, man and
woman. If men do not admit that the Creator began by the least and
finished with the best, they will have to conclude that lobsters, eels,
crocodiles, sharks, owls, vultures, and mere sparrows are beings
superior to them.
If men do not recognise the superiority of these animals over them, they
will have to come to the conclusion that the work of creation is one of
improvement every day.
But man will say, woman is not so strong as we are. True enough; but
horses are stronger than men; elephants by trampling on them can make
marmalade of them. Stags are swifter than men. Camels can carry a weight
of 2,500 lb. on their backs. Birds can fly, and men are only trying
machines to help them do it.
Is man more intelligent than woman? Certainly not. Who ate the apple? I
know that Eve was the first to be disobedient, but she had an idea, at
all events before Adam had one.
Had he even the power of resistance? No. Did he even try to shield woman
after the offence was committed? No, he didn't, the coward. He turned
against her and accused her of being the cause of the whole evil done.
Poor beginning, a poor show, and a sad lesson by which men have
profited, and to this day they turn against the woman they have
deceived, and often abandon her. Man is still true to his origin.
My dear sirs, the proof that God was satisfied that, in creating woman,
He had said the last word of His Divine work, is that He entrusted her
with the most noble of missions, that of bearing the future generations,
of bringing children to the world, of guiding their first steps, of
cultivating their minds and inculcating in them the love of what is good
and right. In intending woman to be mother, God proclaimed the
superiority of women over the rest of the creation.