Women are biologically inferior . Following Aristotle's view of procreation , Aquinas believed that a woman is born by some defect in the generative process. A woman is a 'defective male' . The biologically secondary status is also clear from the belief that the male seed contains the generative power. This view was common among the Fathers .
Women are socially inferior.
A woman is subject to man by nature, because human reason, though common to both men and women to some extent, predominates in the male . Women are created as dependent on men . Man was created first . Though both men and women are the image of God as to our intellectual nature, man is the image of God in a special sense. Aquinas argues that, on account of these inherent defects, woman cannnot signify eminence of degree and can, therefore, not represent Christ as an ordained minister.