Religion's sexual problems

Karen Armstrong, in an article titled The Eve of destruction, traces the origins of the constantly resurgent misogyny in most modern-day religions. It's not as simple as you probably think.
Quote on Islam:
The Prophet Mohammed, for example, was anxious to emancipate women and they were among his first converts. . . There is nothing in the Koran about the veiling of all women or their confinement in harems. This practice came into Islam some three or four generations after the Prophet, under the influence of the Greek Christians of Byzantium, who had long covered and secluded their women in this way.
Quote on Christianity:
Jesus . . . and St Paul had women disciples. They did not ordain them as priests, because there was no Christian priesthood until the third century. The early Christians espoused a revolutionary egalitarianism; a priestly hierarchy was too reminiscent of Judaism and paganism, which they were beginning to leave behind. Those who today condemn women's ordination as a break with tradition should be aware that priesthood and episcopacy are themselves innovations that depart from the practice of the primitive church.

I have further thoughts, too, on this article, which is sparked by the looming possibility of a breakaway Anglican "wing" which only allows male priests. There are still (and probably always will be) some things about the British psyche that are totally impenetrable to me. Quite a number of them have to do with the Anglican church. This is a country that is almost aggressively secular, not compared to France, obviously, but certainly compared to the US. Less than 10% of nominally Christian Britons are churchgoers or practitioners of any religious devotions such as prayer or meditation. Yet the Anglican church, due to Establisment of Religion, wields enormous if narrowly-channeled power. That's why this ongoing controversy over the ordination of women and female bishops really puzzles me. My own church in the US (United Methodists) is far more conservative on many social and "lifestyle" issues than the centre of the Anglican church in the UK, and yet has had female bishops for decades. The UMC had one major schism in the 19th century over slavery, and has been threatened with another over "reconciling" with gays and lesbians, but the ordination of women was relatively serene, and they (the women) are now some of the most popular and influential bishops. So what accounts for the Anglican hysteria? Misogyny? God forbid!