I'm not quite done with verse 7...

"Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge,

giving them honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel,

and as being heirs together of the grace of life;

that your prayers may not be hindered."

I Peter 3:7 r(KJV)

Here is the perspective of Adam Clarke, though not too popular perhaps by today's standards: "Using your superior strength and experience in her behalf, and thus honouring her by becoming her protector and support.  But the word honour, signifies maintenance as well as respect; maintain, provide for the wife."

"As the weaker vessel--Being more delicately, and consequently more slenderly, contructed.  Roughness and strength go hand in hand; so likewise do beauty and frailty.  The female has what the man wants--beauty and delicacy.  The male has what the female wants--courage and strength...By these things God has made an equality between the man and the woman, so that there is properly very little superiority on either side."

"Being heirs together--Both the man and woman being equally called to eternal glory: and as prayer is one great means of obtaining a meetness for it, it is necessary that they should live together in such a manner as to prevent all family contentions, that they may not be prevented, by disputes or misunderstandings, from uniting daily in this most important duty--family and social prayer."

John Wesley wrote, "'Dwell with the woman according to the knowledge--Knowing that they are weak, and therefore to be used with all tenderness; yet do not despise them for this but give them honour--Both in heart, in word, and in action, as those who are called to be joint heirs of that eternal life which ye and they hope to receive by the free grace of God..."  Now, that is a beautiful picture of the married life, tenderness and honor in heart, word and deed as joint heirs in Christ.

I feel like boasting here that in fourth grade I beat all the boys in my class in arm wrestling, except the one who cheated by twisting and hurting my arm.  However, I'm sure I could not begin to cling to that claim to fame if I tried to repeat the deed today.  Indeed, I have known one young woman who could out bench press every man on the college football team.  Yet, in tenderness, she is raising a sterling young man who will most likely outdo even her.  There is a truth in that for the most part, men are stronger than woman.  But this does not discount a woman as being less-than.  Rather, it can be her distinguishing mark of beauty, her delicacy.  Think of china tea-cups whose value is by the delicate thinness of the vessel that one can almost see through them.  Even a man's rough hand must be gentle to not break such a translucent cup.   Beauty and delicacy vs courage and strength, all these things are built into the fabric of creation.

In contrast, as the Bride of Christ, we are all definitely seen as the weaker vessel, so much so that God deemed it necessary for His Son, our hero, to die in order to protect us from the enemy of our soul.  God's strength is perfected in our weakness resulting in our salvation.  Thank heaven for that!