Notice this!

To the woman He said:

“I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth;

in pain you will bring forth children.

Your desire will be for [or belong to] your husband,

and he will rule over you.”

And to Adam He said:

“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife

and have eaten from the tree

of which I commanded you not to eat,

cursed is the ground because of you;

through toil you will eat of it

all the days of your life.

Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you,

and you will eat the plants of the field.

By the sweat of your brow

you will eat your bread,

until you return to the ground—

because out of it were you taken.

For dust you are,

and to dust you shall return.”

For women:

  • I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children.

  • Your desire will be for [or belong to] your husband, and he will rule over you.

For men:

  • cursed is the ground because of you; through toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.

  • Both thorns and thistles it will yield for you.

  • By the sweat of your brow [toil] you will eat your bread.

All of these are outcomes that result from the Fall!

Re. Patriarchy

  • God does not command the husband to rule - He predicts it. It is a consequence of the now broken world, not the divine ideal. It is sitting right next to the ground growing thorns and women having pain in childbirth. 
  • Patriarchy is not God's ideal just like thorns and pain in childbirth are not God's ideal;  they are a result of the fall. 

Some might say - "if God ordains it, we should just accept it".

Think about that for a second!

Do we as humans take steps to mitigate against pain in childbirth, thorns in agriculture, the sweat and toil of labour?

And yet many church cultures approach patriarchy as the ideal and embrace it!