In the 1st century, women were only just beginning to receive a proper education. They were still on the whole viewed as property. Female church leadership would not have been accepted during that time, no matter what. It was not the time for that to change, similar to Paul's input on slavery. Today, fortunately, women are usually not treated as second class and slavery is against the law. Paul's instructions in these cases are, as is the whole of Scripture, beneficial to us, but they cannot be cut out of Scripture and superimposed on every situation in the rest of the world. His references to Scripture have little to do with the duration of his instruction, but serve as examples.
It's interesting that Paul only chose to speak of this issue a couple of times, whereas salient moral and doctrinal issues were emphasized often.
For further reading, I would google and read the works of N.T. Wright, the most preeminent evangelical New Testament scholar among us today and a very gifted writer and theologian. His work explains the complexity of these passages and helps us to an understanding of their application in the original context, which helps us understand how to faithfully interpret them today.
Blessings.
