Are women cursed?

From puberty to period pain, infertility, childbirth and finally menopause, it is not hard to believe that women are cursed. Women and girls often run a gauntlet with their reproductive health, built on a foundation of misogyny in healthcare and medical research predominantly conducted with male bodies. Recent reports show that women’s health issues are frequently normalised and dismissed, impacting every aspect of their lives. In maternity, the stark reality is that black and brown women currently are around four times more likely to die in childbirth than white women, and around 70 per cent of all women suffer some form of trauma in the childbearing continuum. 

Was it meant to be like this?

Some might argue that the suffering women experience in their reproductive health is a specific and manifest consequence of the Fall in Eden and they may have a point, but not in the way you might think. All humans suffer due to sin, but I’d like to suggest that it is historic and patriarchal rhetoric that has used this idea of women being cursed to prevent women from stepping into everything that God intended. 

I challenge the idea that women are being specifically punished with pain in birth, and this is directly rooted in my experience as a midwife. I have supported many women through labour and birth and every single one was different, with some requiring pain relief and others not. If there was an arbitrary blanket punishment for women, then there would be little spectrum of experience. There are many contributing factors to a woman’s experience and the degree to which labour pain negatively affects her, but original sin is not one of them! 

The beauty and pain of labour 

From a midwife’s point of view, the first thing to understand is that labour is a formidable, physical and embodied event. The uterus is one of the most powerful muscles in the body, exerting enormous pressure during birth through contractions. It contracts in response to the hormone oxytocin, also known as the ‘love hormone’. Oxytocin is stimulated when a woman feels safe and supported. In her book, Guide to Childbirth, midwifery author Ina-May Gaskin wrote: “There is no other organ quite like the uterus. If men had such an organ they would brag about it. So should we.” God has no need to brag, he already knows that his creation is “very good” (Genesis 1:31), so it stands to reason that the way a baby is birthed can also be ‘very good’.

For labour to progress well, a delicate balance of hormones, support, environment and nourishment is required. When women are unprepared and fearful, the stress hormone cortisol rises, inhibiting the natural processes. As a midwifery lecturer, I spend my time teaching student midwives to understand and respect this balance. A woman may experience birth as hard work but when that balance is respected, she can feel empowered, positive and even triumphant through it. Birth preparation classes are literally and figuratively God’s work in motion in this respect. A beautiful example of a woman who felt physically, emotionally and spiritually prepared for birth was featured in Woman Alive in May 2023 and it was heartening as a midwife to read such a powerful account of a positive birth.

Likewise in the postnatal period after the birth, healing can be tough and take longer than expected. Postnatal mental health support groups such as ‘Parents in Mind’ run by the NCT are helpful, standing in the gap left as birth has changed from a female-oriented community event to a more isolated hospital event. It is frequently the small, independently run drop-ins, often found in church halls, which provide the community and support necessary to navigate pivotal times in women’s lives.

It is of course wise to not fall foul of wearing rose-tinted glasses when it comes to childbirth, and procedures such as caesarean section and instrumental birth are life-saving procedures for many. Birth is not absent of risk and advances in care are to be welcomed. Indeed, around the time of Jesus, death in childbearing is thought to have been between 2–20 per cent and now is 0.013 per cent in the UK (though still four times that for black women).

A fractured system

With medical advance has come the expectation that we will be able to achieve perfection and as Christians we know that this side of heaven, that is not possible. Furthermore, in the rush to eliminate risk, women have been sold the lie that the only thing that matters is a healthy baby, and yet the Birth Trauma Report in May 2024 is stark evidence that this is just not true. In fact, this lie is only more evidence of what many women experience daily; a common disregard for symptoms relating to their reproductive health. Women are significantly under-represented in medical research, and often debilitating conditions such as endometriosis and heavy periods are misunderstood and dismissed by health professionals. It is easy to see how women and girls start to feel that pain is their ‘lot’ in life when this is what is modelled so often by the healthcare system.

In the early scriptures we see a respect for the rhythms of the reproductive cycle and for birth that we rarely see anymore

Today, women and girls are expected to tolerate this fractured system meant to support them at vulnerable periods in their lives – but it’s not just the healthcare system. Maternity leave in the UK is still far shorter than it is for our European neighbours, and teenage girls experiencing PMS pay the penalty if their period falls on exam days. The reality is that female health is still not prioritised by the government, and this is a mirror to society’s viewpoint that ‘women’s troubles’ are just a fact of life to be endured. 

A biblical perspective

In the early scriptures we see a respect for the rhythms of the reproductive cycle and for birth that we rarely see anymore. Scriptures such as Leviticus 15:18-30 stating that anything the woman touches during her menstrual impurity will become unclean, and then 18:19 and 20:18 prohibiting sexual contact during menstruation can be confusing and may first appear to be demeaning of women. However, in those times, not only did these laws have a practical application to prevent the spread of bacteria, but they were also a recognition that women had very little bodily autonomy. So, the laws protected and safeguarded the physical vulnerability women experienced. In a world which does not always rightly respect the incredible cycle of creation evident in women’s bodies, God did not leave them without safeguards. I believe he also gave women the necessary tool for their part in being fruitful in the world; he gave them midwives.

By the time we read about the Hebrew midwives in Exodus 1, Shiphrah and Puah, we have already seen how Rachel (Genesis 35:17) and Tamar (38:28) were supported by midwives. These accounts show us the midwives were supportive, with the right words at the right time, as well as knowledgeable, identifying twins in a pregnancy. The fact they are mentioned almost in passing demonstrates the well-established nature of their role. Shiphrah and Puah orchestrated the prevention of mass infanticide at the hands of Pharaoh and were blessed by God for honouring the courageous profession he set them within. Midwives understand labour and know that although it is hard work, it is also rewarding and powerful work. So, when the midwives spoke to Pharaoh, they described the Hebrew women as “vigorous” (Exodus 1:19). This is such a wonderful word because it is one which can be used to describe any woman, birthing or not, who is enabled to be the powerful and strong version of herself that this word embodies. 

Lost in translation

If labour pain is not a curse on women, rather an expression of power, then where does the concept come from? Who, or what was cursed by God in Genesis 3:14-16? In fact, it wasn’t the man or the woman. God first dealt with the serpent, cursing him for deceiving his most precious creation, humans. God then set in motion a sequence of events that would ultimately end in the serpent’s defeat at the foot of a man who would be born of ‘Eve’. God situated his prophesy for redemption through Christ in this passage, and it is on this foundation that the following consequences for the man and woman are built upon.  

God then turned his attention to Eve but in the text about pain in childbearing the word ‘cursed’ was not used. It is arguable that the pain God was referring to in childbearing is not labour pain, but rather a consequence of impacting the ‘work’ God prepared Eve to do on earth. Many translations of this text point to pain in childbirth, however the Hebrew suggests something quite different. The word used for ‘pain’ in this verse is the same word used for the toil and frustration Adam would feel in working the cursed ground. It is also the same word used to describe the emotional pain God felt later in Genesis when he saw the behaviour of the people prior to his flooding of the world (Genesis 6:6). It is undeniable that aside from physical pain, the most difficult part of trying to conceive, birthing and then raising a child, is the emotional ‘toil’ of doing so. There are words in Hebrew to describe labour pain, but they are not used in these verses. It is possible, then, that inaccurate translations of these words reduced them to ‘pain’ and the idea that women were cursed in childbirth was therefore born. Both Adam and Eve were equally instructed to “be fruitful and increase in number” (Genesis 1:28) and the consequences of the Fall were that they would both now equally experience frustration and emotional pain in their efforts.

Early biblical misinterpretations of the pain experienced by women have provided fertile ground in which misogyny in female healthcare has flourished

Those early biblical misinterpretations of the pain experienced by women have provided fertile ground in which misogyny in female healthcare has flourished. Furthermore, many scriptures in the Bible have been used to subjugate women and prevent and prohibit them from fulfilling the mandate handed to them in Eden, which was to be fruitful, multiply and rule together with men. We equally bore the consequence of disobedience in the Garden, but it is the sinful nature of humanity expressed in misogyny that has resulted in the worldly sense that women are cursed. However, as Christians we can and should hold to heaven’s view of women as equal image bearers and co-labourers. 

Passivity in society and the Church allows the concept of the curse against women to continue. The solidarity we see through the actions of the Hebrew midwives can motivate us all to stand with our sisters around the world to act, raise awareness and reduce inequality. Seeing scripture through the lens of God – who continually humanises rather than dehumanises women – can help us to walk in the truth that women are not cursed by God; far from it.

Michelle Tant is a lecturer and writer in midwifery. She is also a deacon in her local church, is passionate about social justice and writes a blog about how the Bible humanises women.

Michelle joined Tola-Doll Fisher and Dr Belle Tindall on the Woman Alive podcast episode, ‘Women are cursed’, available on Premier.Plus, Apple Podcasts and Spotify.