I agree that partnership is the ideal. I hope my use of the word "leadership" hasn't blurred the issue and made the discussion thornier than it needed to be. The NT is full of verses about "preferring one another in love", "submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord", etc., which very clearly go back and forth across gender lines. Overall, the standard of leadership depends on an attitude of SERVE, not a wish to be followed or looked up to.

Service can entail being a mom or a caretaker, but if we deny access to other more public spheres of service, solely on the basis of gender, I feel that we are fighting against the very Giver of Gifts (1 Co. 12:11 and the verses leading up to it).

Both sexes have their weaknesses. If not inherent and across-the-board, as is sometimes suggested (e.g. women being easily deceived; men being fearful and prone to doubt-- which I don't accept), then certainly as individuals. We need each other and the balance of perspective that our maleness and femaleness provide us for the work we're called to do. To silence or sideline one or the other is to condemn all of us to failure.