Symbolically, the masculine principle represents the spirit, which preceded the whole of creation, & the feminine principle represents matter

"In the book of Genesis we are told that God created the man, Adam, first and then the woman, Eve. And in the Hebrew bible, the first two letters of the name of God, the Tetragrammaton Y H V H, are yod Y, corresponding to the masculine principle, and then he H, corresponding to the feminine principle. Initiates placed the masculine principle before the feminine in this way, not because they thought the masculine principle was more important, but because they were deferring to cosmic symbolism. Symbolically, the masculine principle represents the spirit, which preceded the whole of creation, and the feminine principle represents matter, upon which the spirit works. But they both need each other: spirit needs matter to give it flesh, and matter needs spirit to bring it to life. Creation is simply the result of this meeting of spirit and matter.

And in a family you cannot say that the role and responsibility of the father are greater than those of the mother. The two are of equal value, of equal importance, since both are needed to give birth to a child."