As the early Christ cults battled for market domination, one of the leading movements was that of the Gnostics. These were not literalists and like other contemporary Christ followers were not patriarchal but allowed women as leaders within the group.
It's worth remembering that the Bible or rather a Bible with an orthodox canon did not exist until the first quarter of the fourth century.
It was the right wing literalist interpreters of christian writings who eventually won out when the Roman powers forced a fusion of beliefs creating the Catholic Church and gave its assent to the Pauline texts (whoever wrote them) with its support of male authority reflecting the military ethos of the empire.