Section — Bucceroni, Commentaries (1910)

VIII. On the Equality of Woman with Man

"It is natural that the soul rule the body, and reason the inferior powers. And therefore, as the Philosopher teaches, whenever any two things are so related as soul to body and reason to sensuality, natural dominion belongs to him who abounds in reason, and that one is ruling; but the other is subject, namely that which is deficient in reason." St. Thomas, in Ethics, l. 7, lect. 3.

Hence the Apostle Paul himself deduces the subjection of woman from her inferior physical and rational condition. "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve, and Adam was not seduced; but the woman, being seduced, was in the transgression." 1 Tim. 2:10, 14.

Concerning the equality of man and woman the Angelic Doctor has these things in 4 D. 32, q. 1, a. 3: "Equality is twofold, namely of quantity and of proportion. Speaking of the first equality, husband and wife are not equal in marriage, neither as regards the conjugal act, in which that which is nobler is due to the man, nor as regards the management of the house, in which the wife is ruled and the man rules. But as regards the second equality they are equal in both, because just as the man is bound to the wife in the conjugal act and in the management of the house as to that which is the man's, so the wife is bound to the man as to that which is the wife's."

Marriage, recalled by Christ to its pristine indivisibility, most greatly exalts the dignity of woman. It is the conjunction itself of man and woman containing an undivided habit of life. Yet if the question concerns eternal salvation to be attained and the means necessary for it, since man and woman are equally destined for eternal life, in this matter they are mutually independent and equal in duties and rights. For in Christ there is neither male nor female, Gal. 3:28. Therefore woman has been emancipated from man as regards the moral and supernatural order of her life; she can indeed be helped by man, but she cannot be impeded by him as regards the sanctity of her life. From the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, woman has been ennobled, and she can rise to eminent sanctity, as can a man, as is clear from the fact of holy women and holy men.

But if, on the contrary, the question concerns the domestic order, both of conjugal society and of parental and herile society, woman is not independent of man, and in domestic society the equality, independence, and emancipation of woman cannot be admitted. For woman was made as a helper for man, Gen. 2:18; 1 Cor. 11:9; whence the man is her head, and she is subject to him, 1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:24; and therefore she is not independent and emancipated in that threefold society of domestic society, conjugal, parental, and herile. And, as regards paternal power in particular, which is exercised over the persons of children, it resides indeed both in the father and in the mother; but because of the natural subjection of wife to husband, it exists principally in the father, whence it received the name paternal power. This is also confirmed by all positive laws, ancient and modern.

If we go out from the domestic order, and the question is asked concerning civil society, certainly nothing prevents the instruction of woman from being perfected in letters and arts, and consequently from being made better as regards the comfort of life. Nor does anything prevent women in the same civil society from being admitted to exercising businesses and offices for which they are fit, and from being compensated also with an equal stipend, yet without any detriment to the duties of wife and mother. Yet since, both physically and morally, the powers of women and of men are neither the same nor developed in the same way, they are altogether to be excluded from those businesses and offices for which by nature they are not fit, and which cannot be exercised by them without the aforesaid detriment to the duties of wife and mother.