Paula

My 2¢–

A guardian/overseer was to protect the less spiritually mature from false teachings. But we really don’t know the function of servants (diakonos, a term Paul used for himself and his co-workers, including women). Note a parallel in the letter to Titus where Paul uses the term “elders”; it is another instance where both males and females are specified. Yet even there, there is also an over-arching set of qualities for both groups.

From the little we have to go on we can only speculate as to why male and female servants/elders are addressed separately. It may be in the nature of the service, and in social constraints.

Another consideration is the principle that these are not lists of exclusions but character traits required of these people. Perhaps in mentioning both male and female Paul is making it clear that women are not to be less qualified, or given any kind of lesser rank due to less demanding qualities.

And of course, in all of this, not even males are ever given rule over anyone. That anyone should seek to prevent women from a low position of servitude speaks volumes about the real agenda of male supremacism, and of their failure to grasp the nature of the Body.