From the church to the office to the home, women get things done. As The Great Resignation has revealed, women often take on more responsibilities in the home than their male partners, despite working as much or more outside of the home. Women volunteer at significantly higher rates than men in the church, yet they regularly meet roadblocks or resistance to their efforts due to their gender.

Carmen Joy Imes explores some of these dynamics in Helper: You Keep Using That Word for Women.

"What if we’ve gotten that word wrong?" Imes writes. "The subservient overtones that often come with it are nowhere to be found in Scripture. And our misinterpretation has gotten us into trouble in how we view male and female roles."

Imes explains that a careful look at Genesis 2, where God creates Eve as a "helper," reveals that women were created to be full partners in God’s work for humanity. And what is God’s first assignment to his image-bearers? Rulership. God tasks both Adam and Eve with maintaining order in creation and seeing to its flourishing.

Throughout Scripture, the word "helper" refers not to a servant but to a rescuer—a reinforcement in battle.

"What does this mean for women?" Imes asks. "The man is not in need of a secretary, a sidekick, or someone to carry out his orders. Rather, he needs a full partner in the work of ruling creation, maintaining the garden, and guarding it from intruders. He needs a woman."

The great joy of God’s creation of women is not that men have someone to assign their menial tasks. Instead, women arrive on the scene as full participants in carrying out God’s mission in the world alongside their male partners and peers. They may do so as CEOs or stay-at-home moms, as artists or assistants. For women and men alike, flourishing is found in that freedom.