The story probably doesn’t say that Eve was created as a secondary critter, as an afterthought. The first person is created. The Hebrew term there is a gender-inclusive term. It means human being. God created a human being and then divided that human being. These are two sides of a whole. Male and female together make up humanity.
One of the terms that the divine figure uses in saying that the second critter should be created is that there needs to be someone who is a suitable partner. Not an assistant. But two people who are on the same level with each other. There’s no built in hierarchy to male and female existence in the Garden of Eden story. So Eve comes out in relationship to her male counterpart as an equal being if not even one who dominates the scene. And the idea that she’s a sexy subservient seductress is an overlay from later tradition. And feminist biblical scholarship helps to peel away that overlay for Eve and for many other female and male figures in the Hebrew Bible.
