God and Women

As you know from reading my earlier entries, I've been reading my bible.  I read it through entirely, and am going back and re-reading bits and pieces, since it's a long book.  There's no way to remember everything it says in one reading.

Anyway, one of the things that struck me is how many prominent women are mentioned in every culture but that of the Jews and Christians.  It would seem that God, my God, the God of the bible, introduced the idea that women should be subservient to men, and his people have been busy making an example of that to the rest of the world.  Christians especially, seem to have done a excellent job of setting this example, ultimately culminating in the dark ages, when women were worth less than cattle.

Now, after 6,000 years of this, women are working hard to dig themselves out of this trench to demand equality and respect.  Equality before men AND God.

So what was the point of this?  When I first read through the books of Moses, this really angered me.  During the time God was laying out all 600+ laws and instructions to Moses, he couldn't have said ONE DARN THING to protect women from what he, as God, should have known would happen?  It seems clear to me that Jesus respected women, and treated them well, which is probably why he had such a following of loyal women.  So why the disconnect?  What was the purpose of being such an ass?

You don't need to tell me what I already believe: which is that God DOESN'T know what's going to happen, and that he changes his mind just like the rest of us.  I would like to hear some other theories, though.