Kristen

Craig, I see being “authorized” or “recognized” as conveying a level of trust placed in them by the hearers. We have all heard it said that Prof. So-and-So is “an authority” on such-and-such a subject. This means that when the Prof. speaks, people trust what he’s teaching– they consider what he’s saying to have more weight than if I myself just stood up and started pontificating on the subject. They are more likely to believe the Prof. than they would me.
I picture what might have been going on in Ephesus as this: because of the lack of education of the women in the church at the time Paul was writing to Timothy, there were no women recognized as being “authoritative” (as the Prof in the example above is “authoritative”) on the subject of Christian doctrine. But a certain woman or women were setting themselves up as “authoritative” anyway, and were holding meetings in which they contradicted what the established, trusted teachers (who happened to be all male in Ephesus) were teaching. Paul wanted this to be stopped. He wanted the woman or women to sit down and listen and be teachable. Only then could they ever attain what they were seeking, which was to be considered “authorities” on the subjects they wanted to teach about.