Genesis has two separate creation stories in chapters one and two that were later combined into the same book, and only the second one has the story of Eve being created from the rib or Adam or their fall from grace and expulsion from the Garden of Eden. From the start, the Bible makes it clear that the main function of women is to be "helpmates…wives and mothers" (Bellis 59)
Genesis 31 seems to indicate that although women were legally powerless against fathers and husbands, they could still find informal ways of striking back at them (Lapsley 25). Like Hagar, who was also not a first wife or a matriarch, Leah was able to obtain a degree of freedom from her oppressors and was blessed with children as "gifts from God" (Jeansonne 2)
Rachel was also cunning enough to prevent any men from searching her by claiming that she was menstruating and therefore unclean -- literally untouchable. Genesis 31 seems to indicate that although women were legally powerless against fathers and husbands, they could still find informal ways of striking back at them (Lapsley 25)
Her brothers kill Shechem for his crime, but then the whole family has to flee from the vengeance of his clan. Tamar pretended to be a prostitute so that she could have a child with Judah, who also evidently was unaware that she was his daughter-in-law, although in this case the Bible makes it clear that it was all God's will (Menn 7)
Then he exiles them from the Garden so they will not be able to eat from the tree of eternal life (Gen 3: 8-20). Even after this fall from grace, however, women still have a key role to play in determining "who receives the Israelite Deity's promise," often through cunning and trickery, since their most important purpose in life was to produce male heirs (Schneider 10)