Sub-Ordinate

[teresaq]

This appears to me to be related to the argument from the article from the Council for Biblical Manhood and Womanhood ("CBMW") that male authority and female subordination are mere "functional" differences. My commenter is saying that there is nothing inherently superior about being in authority, nor anything inherently inferior about being in submission to authority. In terms of "functional" differences, she is of course, quite right. Despite her reference to my "prideful reaction to authority," it really is not authority in and of itself that I am reacting against. What I object to is the idea that one group has a divine right to have authority over another group, based on nothing other than their identity from birth as part of the authority-holding group.

To put it in the simplest terms, it makes a difference who is in submission to whom if the nature of man is to be in authority over woman, and the nature of woman is to be under the authority of man-- because submitting to authority is not equal to being in authority, and I believe this is self-evident. To be the one who acts and commands (authority) is not equal to being the one who is acted upon and commanded. That's why the one under authority is called a "subordinate." The very word means "under."

You can be equal and still in a position of submission to authority if the submission is part of the position, not part of who you are. But if these unequal things then become part of our very natures as men or women, then men and women not equal. I'm not against authority; I'm against being made unequal when the Scriptures say I'm equal.

http://krwordgazer.blogspot.com.au/2014/03/why-protesting-equal-but-subordinate-is.html
Sub-Ordinate
adjective
1.
placed in or belonging to a lower order or rank.
2.
of less importance; secondary.
3.
subject to or under the authority of a superior.
4.
subservient or inferior.
5.
subject; dependent.
6.
Grammar.

acting as a modifier, as when I finished, which is subordinate to They were glad in They were glad when I finished.
noting or pertaining to a subordinating conjunction.

7.
Obsolete, submissive.
noun
8.
a subordinate person or thing.
verb (used with object), subordinated, subordinating.
9.
to place in a lower order or rank.
10.
to make secondary (usually followed by to):
to subordinate work to pleasure.
11.
to make subject, subservient, or dependent (usually followed by to):
to subordinate passion to reason.
Origin of subordinate
late Middle English
Medieval Latin

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/subordinate