The Greek adjective gynaikeios means 'of or pertaining to women,' 'female,' or 'womanly.' It appears only once in the New Testament (1 Peter 3:7), where Peter refers to the wife as the 'female vessel' (gynaikeiō skeuei), urging husbands to live with their wives in an understanding way and to honor them as co-heirs of God's grace.
Peter's use of gynaikeios in 1 Peter 3:7 is embedded in a call to marital honor and spiritual partnership. Husbands are to dwell with their wives knowledgeably (kata gnosin), giving honor to the woman as to a 'weaker vessel' — not weaker in moral worth or spiritual standing, but physically or socially more vulnerable in the ancient context. The remarkable addition is that wives are 'co-heirs of the grace of life' — equal in inheritance before God. Failure to honor the wife, Peter warns, hinders prayer. Marriage is thus both a horizontal relationship of mutual honor and a vertical spiritual partnership.