I always said it. Some religious groups do not allow women to "teach" inside the church/congregation. But still each one of us, men, had a woman as his first mentor and in what period! The first 10 years of our lives, when our personality is defined and refined for the rest of our lives. I have to admit, their desire is good in itself: the need for peace and security. But people develop other needs apart from security. The need for wealth, for power, for domination. That is a need which resides deep into the male mind and is instinctual. It's not aquired through education (though it can be supressed through education). Throughout history, these 2 needs were welded into a very destructive force: religious fanatism. It's prize was double: the self-righteousness of the individual made him feel almost like God, it drugged him; and by eradicating the heathens, he could aquire lands and wealth or just the appreciation and protection of the powerful clergy-class in the worst case.
In fewer words, the women seek security and wellfare for their homes and men are motivated into being willing to pay that price. It's something that can be also observed into other animals' behavior, like lions, for example. The male's job is to protect and provide for the family even with the price of his own life (the fact that he guards the family-hunting ground is his way of "providing"). It's an unwritten law of life: males are expandable, women must carry the offspring. Religions simply acts as one of the motivational tools of Homo Sapiens. A more evolved intellect demands more evolved motivational tools. Religion is one of them.
The irony of this whole situation is: Religion resulted from the evolution of our brain and is in itself a sum of evolved instincts.