Biblical sexism

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.

Sexism in the Bible is quite rife. More liberal Christians mostly ignore this sort of thing and accurately attribute it to the patriarchal ancient Near East societies of the authors and compilers of holy scripture - those societies really did treat human females as objects and as property.

More conservative Christians, who might hold "traditional" family values, may also be quite embarrassed by the outright displays of male chauvinism, but literalists really do have no choice but to accept biblical sexism as fact, and to conclude that they support it as prescribed. They may move on to encourage and advocate such sexism in practice.

Corinthians








Deuteronomy




Exodus




Genesis






Worth noting is that Abraham already had a wife at this point (Sarah), as well as his very own abandoned sex slave concubine (Hagar).







Leviticus

 * and :

If a woman gives birth to a male child, she is unclean for seven days. If she has a female child, she is unclean for 14-66 days. Go figure.





Women in the Bible
Amusingly, there are several prominent women throughout the Bible who actually go against the above norms and rules, especially in the Old Testament. A standout example is the story of in Genesis 38.

Tamar was a woman who married a man, but he was murdered by God for being evil before they had any kids. She then married his brother Onan, who was killed for God for performing  before she got knocked up. Their dad, Judah, thinks Tamar is cursed and tells her to wait before marrying his youngest son, as the custom of the time is a woman must marry the brothers of her husband if he dies childless. Any children from those unions are considered the dead eldest brother's. Tamar has to wait before she can marry again, however, when the youngest does come of age, Judah still won't let them marry. So Tamar disguises herself as a prostitute, tricks Judah into getting her pregnant and is given his signet ring so he can pay her later. When her pregnancy is discovered, Judah wants to burn her alive for adultery, until Tamar gives him the ring. Realizing he's the father, Judah admits Tamar is in the right and he in the wrong for not freeing her from the marriage obligation. Tamar had twins, one of whom is an ancestor of Jesus.