Since When Are Women Weaker?

It’s what’s in the vessel that counts.

1 Peter 3:7 commands husbands to honor their wives as the “weaker vessel”. Some people take this to mean that women are physically or emotionally weaker than men or as a command for these men to not abuse their wives. Others take it further and see it as a command for all men to treat their wives like fine china. However, interpretations that involve contemporary gender roles fall flat when one considers the lifestyle of the average ancient Israeli woman. She spent long, laborious hours carrying firewood and grinding grains to make flour. In the winter, when there was no grain to harvest, she made textiles for herself and for merchants. This makes it clear that women are not as fragile as some people have made them out to be.

What does it mean, then, if women supposedly inhabit weaker vessels? Many derivatives of the original word that translates to “weakness” are related to illness. Therefore, one must believe that womanhood is an illness to believe that women are inherently “weak” in a way that men are not. Since the vast majority of people do not think of womanhood as an illness, this weakness must not have been an inherent part of womanhood. Rather, the weakness seems to have been a social condition.