When women bump into prejudice, it is wise for them to examine the target. What is really under attack? Is it true womanhood, reflecting Life and Love, inseparable from true manhood? Are qualities of fidelity, spiritual intuition, wisdom, beauty, tenderness, and gentleness being criticized?
Wherever hatred of women appears, look carefully. The only target that can be hit is Eve.
This biblical, allegorical character represents the material view of woman as merely female. She exemplifies all the qualities that lose heaven. (In Eden, she tempts her husband to disobey God; outside, she has trouble with the children.) Eve appears in the second—counterfeit—account of creation in Genesis. Mrs. Eddy describes her: "According to this belief, the rib taken from Adam's side has grown into an evil mind, named woman, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?" Science and Health, p. 533;
