Equality of Sexes

Many traditions advocate women must be submissive to men. Sad traditions I have encountered all my life. Interestingly enough they claim God established this hierarchy at creation. So let me address it as a creation issue, "Are women spare ribs or prime cut?"
My foundation for examination is I believe, "Bereshith bara Elohim" ...In the beginning when God created... i.e. Life begins with God. Genesis means beginnings. Chapters 1 thru 11 of the book of Genesis are the primordial historical narrative of the earliest generations of the world and humankind. They are background for the call of Abram in the twelfth chapter. It is in this history that we find the creation of boys and girls.
English Bibles or traditional King James paraphrases are very difficult to use for particular endeavor, because they use the word "man" in place of several original Hebrew words. Let us first look at the Hebrew word influencing this subject. The word "adam" in Hebrew generally means humankind. It is not used as the proper name of the first male until verse 4:25. The evolution of the use of the word that goes from meaning humanity to a specific person is not uncommon in many Near Eastern accounts of creation.
The crux of creation is seen in Chapter 1 verse 27 - "So God created humankind (adam - heb.) in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (NRSV) Boys and girls are both created in the image of God. This is the first and oldest text in Scripture concerning we humans. Man and woman were created equal in the sight of God. They are male and female in the image of God. Neither is more of an image than the other.
Then what is the second more familiar story the account of the Garden of Eden? Like much of the rest of Genesis it is a God's method of revealing truth that took place in the beginnings. Much is hard to understand but it is background for many traditions in the nation of Israel. Remember all of these Scriptures were passed down through generations for over a thousand years until they were put into writings just before the collapse of Judah as a nation.
Many people appropriate the story of the rib, which has no medical support. Yet many of us seize the issue of the breath of God. What is more important in the Garden story, the notion of male supremacy or a people of God, male and female, lead by the Spirit of God?
I have always had trouble with the two humans in the Garden being the first humans on planet Earth. Why? Who were the people in the land of Nod east of Eden? I don't know either, but they forced me to look at the story again. In the second look it was fascinating to see God take two particular humans into a special alliance and breath the breath of life into them. The etymologist knows it is the same breath that blew over the chaos and created something out of nothing. It is the same breath that descended as a dove when Jesus received the Holy Spirit.
Eureka! Perhaps these two creatures, male and female, were the first humans on planet Earth to receive the Holy Spirit. The first two humans born from above into the Kingdom of God. That is the real significance about the Garden story. Not some proof text to make me a Tarzan and my wife a Jane. Sorry Bubba, but your wife is also in the image of God and filled with the same Spirit, if she is a child of God.
Scriptures treats humankind as the focus of creation. Each and every human is intended to be prime cut. Yes, made in the image of God, male and female. Humankind is separated by who is in God's Garden and who is not in it. Or who has God's Spirit, the breath of God, and who doesn't have it. During the introduction of sin we find the spare rib concept for female humankind. Isn't it time to return to the original concept for God's people. Recognize we are all created in his image, male and female, and in need of his breath?
And! I am not a feminazi or a flaming liberal feminist! I am a male human in God, who wants equality of position to all humankind. In the place where I live (that's in Christ Jesus) there is neither Greek nor Jew, slave nor free, male nor female. Won't you move to my neighborhood and live in the fullness for which God created you, whether you are male or female?