Thanks, ATF.  I see his suggestion as a two-sided coin, one side where any progression and inclusion of women is good and the other as one more way for women to be both separate and still not equal.  

Although racism and sexism in the US are still horrific problems, how much worse would they be today had voting rights not been extended to blacks and women, where all the provisions of the Civil Rights Act had been tempered so fully participatory meant "advisory," where rampant racial discrimination was still legal in employment, educational, housing, etc., policies and practices?  I don't think the examples are extreme.  Discrimination is discrimination, no matter the traditions or rationales used to prop it up.  

I don't get why THEY don't get it.  What keeps them so freaking blind, even when men like this Cardinal obviously have valuable viewpoints on other issues (and even tangentially on this one)?  The obvious just eludes them, and it puzzles as well as infuriates me.