How does the Bible incorporate women in the original creation?

Genesis 1:26-27Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like ourselves. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Genesis 5:1-2This is the written account of the descendants of Adam. When God created human beings, he made them to be like himself. He created them male and female, and he blessed them and called them “human.”

In God’s summary statement about the unique place of humans in the created order, he declared both woman and man as bearers of God’s image. As individuals man and woman carry certain aspects of God’s image. As a oneness created in marriage, their union carries further aspects of God’s image. Together they are held responsible to “reign” over creation as managers and keepers.

Genesis 2:15-18The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden—except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.” Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.”

In the background details of God’s creation of humans, God began by making Adam and gave him the role of caretaker over the rest of creation. But in the first instance of God reporting something being “not good” about the universe, he declared the necessity of a helper for Adam. None of the other creatures God had already populated the world with could adequately fill that role. God made the woman as “just right” to complete the human design. Note in the sequence of these events that Adam received the instruction about free access to all the trees in the garden except one. He was responsible for conveying this instruction to Eve.

Genesis 2:20-25He [the man] gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.

While God made the man from mud and his breath (Genesis 2:7), he fashioned Eve using a part of Adam as a starting point. From that moment on, every other human child has been born through a woman. This is made possible by the oneness that marriage brings to a man and a woman.

Matthew 19:4-6“Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’ And he said, ‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.”

Jesus confirmed the creation of the man and woman as God’s original plan and the foundation of marriage—that unique connection between God’s image bearers that makes them one. This union enables them to create life together.