Reverendo,

I think you have a very valid point.  When the results of the San Antonio vote were announced, there was a collective gasp in the crowd of onlookers.  Anyone who understands how to count noses, realized that a fair number of "third world" delegates, must have voted YES.

In addition to being a "urban" vs "rural" split as you suggest, I think there was and is also a strong generational split on this question, around the world.  Even in Africa we are seeing a few women appear as heads of state.  Younger people are growing-up with the idea that women can and and do have leadership gifts and roles apart from the home, and caring for the elderly and the children.

But in some cultures the younger SDA leaders are unwilling to openly oppose their elders.  They will simply wait for them to retire and/or die.  And I think some of these elders sense this, which is why they have become so urgent to stop-out the new ideas now.

This is as much age-ism as sex-ism.