Path, think of how acceptable it is for guys to fight other guys. Sure, it's "illegal" to go around beating guys up but everyone does it shamelessly, even proudly.
The weak and nerdy cower from strong guys, and are overly submissive because of this. There are bars and sporting events they will stay away from because they would fear for their safety at those places. Women go everywhere, despite being at least as weak as those nerds.
Girls can freely be loud mouth smartasses, because they are girls and thus untouchable.
If they were emancipated and really put on equal footing as men, they'd gradually be worn into subordinance by stronger men, even nerds would be picking on them.
In the end we'd have shaking little flowers on edge all the time.
Ironically, they'd naturally go to the bottom of the pecking order.
And they'd get fucked against their will all the time.
I went to a boarding school, didn't board there, but it was a boarding school with boarders and I'd hear the stories. The sexual abuse males would suffer at the hands of other males was horriffic. And it just didn't have that air about it that male sexual abuse against females has. It was just funny. Even though it was big strong guys doing disgusting degrading things to weak little guys. The subordinant individual in the interactions having a penis is all that stopped them from being public outrage worthy.
Big guys would hold little guys down and squirt shoe polish in their assholes, fuck them with broomsticks, force them to suck cock, force them to suck eachothers cock, shit on them, etc etc. I can't even remember all the wierd things I used to hear about.
It was really just a big laugh. No one would hide the fact they rubbed their shitty anus on a little nerds face. It was just normal boys will be boys bullying. Even teachers knew it happened and would chuckle about it. They'd go through the process of reprimanding an offender if he was caught but it wasn't taken seriously.
Because males are supposed to pick on eachother. If there was similarly acceptable for boy on girl bullying females would be targetted with this sort of crap fiercely, not just because they're weak, but also because the bullys would enjoy abusing them more than they would abusing males. Many male nerds would sleep soundly without tweaked nipples and friction-burnt asses and coathanger'd penii because all the bullies would be busy abusing females, they'd forego sleep just so they could abuse females for longer.
Girls would get raped casually in a light hearted fashion on a regular basis if gender barriers were taken down.
The teachers in co-ed boarding schools would be chuckling in classrooms "mick, heard you gave susan a bit of grief last night, hehe" and then when mick would be caught raping susan on the football field he'd be sent to a disciplinary figure who'd say "come on, be honest, were you raping susan on the football field" "yes sir" "that wasn't so hard was it? Now pick up all the litter in the playground and say sorry" "aww but" "no buts, now get out of here ya little scamp".
By permanently placing them at a level below men, making them something seperate rather than "equals" they are able to be alot closer to equals than they ever would be if they really were considered equal.
That's why gender barriers are there, most species with significant sexual dimorphism have them.
There isn't much sexual dimorphism in tasmanian devils, and females will only copulate with the individual males who prove they can beat them up, drag them into a burrow, rape them, keep them hostage and rape them again, and again and again.
But it's too easy for human guys to do that to human girls, so we've naturally evolved other forms of courtship, it's ingrained into our culture for males to tread lightly around girls, and not beat them up.
But there's more to the deal, it follows that females have to be treated differently than males for this to all work out.
They need to come across as something that is "inferior"(and thats really not even the word I mean, but I'm stumped), rather than a worthy competitor.
If they are put on the football field they'll be treated like a player, and a sexy player at that, which will mean extra groping.