Courtney, if you will permit me a lengthy response:

I believe that it is a mistake to say women have weaker consciences; both men and women are clearly instructed in scripture to renew our minds (Romans 12:2) into thinking more like Christ and less like the world. I believe both men and women are held to standards of moral culpability by God; I do not think this is what God meant when he wrote that women "are the weaker vessel" (1 Peter 3:7).

That being said, I also believe that women are not as strong as men in the physical, or in the emotional, or in some of our thinking. We are not the same as men. Our brains are literally chemically and physically different in creation. This does not mean we are inferior, but that we are differently made, to be complementary to our husbands and not just like our husbands.

Because we are different than men, and God ordained a woman's father and husband to be her protector(s), it is necessary that a man see his wife may be in need of direction at times, lest she veer off course into dangerous waters of deception. Because of God's order (Husband/Wife/Children, or Father/daughter, with a female always having appropriate male authority over her life), I believe He is saying that women, being the weaker vessel, need loving, protective guidance and leadership from the man in authority over them (Father or Husband), lest she be eaten alive by the many traps of Satan, or she fall into traps of her own emotional making.

Again, because of the order God set out in Creation and in New Testament teachings for marriage, I believe most men (if it hasn't been 'trained' out of them by society) don't take too kindly to being told what to do by their wives! It's just built into them by the Creator to be in leadership, and unless it's been trained out of them by myriad societal sources, they do not respond well to a woman trying to lead them out of whatever they're doing, even if it's wrong! This is for good reason, as we can see by the disaster of the Garden of Eden, when God clearly says that Adam's sin included not only eating the forbidden fruit with his wife, but LISTENING to his wife (instead of listening to God.)

Of course, that doesn't mean a husband should not ever listen to his wife, but sometimes, I know from my experience and other wives as well, we are just flat out deceived as wives, and we don't even know it! For instance, I had a friend once that my husband truly disliked. My husband thought better than to try and order me to discontinue my friendship with this woman, but he didn't like her and he didn't like us together - and he made it very vocally well-known to me!

I did not immediately choose to cut out the woman from my life; I thought he was wrong what he "saw" in her. I thought maybe he just didn't like me having her as a friend. Months later, she had an affair on her loving husband and moved in with her lover while still married. She then chose to run her little six year old daughter through the divorce wringer, laughing about it. She had no remorse, and her "Christian" character wasn't at all developed, as I had previously thought.

My husband was right about this woman's lack of character. When I saw what she had done, I was heartbroken. I was sick about what she had chosen. Our friendship was over because I could not speak truth to her without her taking offense, and that was that. Had I just listened to my husband in the first place, I may not have invested so much emotion and time in this friendship with her; I might have kept her as an acquaintance, but not a close friend. I learned a lot through this experience.

I know that even though my husband is just another flawed human being like myself, that sometimes, by virtue of the position God has given him as head of our household, he sees things that I do not. He sees dangers that I do not, and I am wise to heed his counsel in these areas. He sees if I am getting overly emotional about certain things, or making decisions based upon emotion alone, and he is able to speak to me.

He's not perfect; he has his issues like any husband. I have mine. I do not always listen to him, as you can see above, but I am trying to train myself to honor God by being more and more yielded and submissive to my husband.