Feminist Criticism of the Old Testament: Why Bother?

Despite the apparent contemporary irrelevance of the Old Testament, the Adam and Eve narrative in Genesis 2-3 is a deeply engrained element within Western cultural mythology. As such it virtually demands a feminist critique, because its common interpretation as a narrative demonstrating women's inferiority and legitimizing their subordination has a mutually reinforcing relationship with the patriarchal world-view that still pervades much of Western culture. A feminist reading of Genesis 2-3 highlights the difficulties with the traditional subordinationist reading, and suggests other possibilities for interpretation that relativize the absolutism of patriarchal authority claims, thereby making it possible to envisage, and work towards, a different world-order.