Women pretty much kept things running whenever things failed - we had always been hardy, resourceful, and able to wield true power without having to turn it into a dick-measuring contest.

Also, most societies started as matriarchies! Hints of this ancient power could still be glimpsed in cultures that had been continuously preserved for long enough, like the Chinese. To this day, the Chinese character for 'family/clan name' is still 姓, which is composed of 'female' (女) and 'to give birth' (生).

Speaking of the Far East - if their history was representative of general historical trends, the alphabet itself seems to be a feminine invention. Hangul (modern Korean writing) and the -kana systems (modern Japanese writing) were both considered 'women's writing' once upon a time (because 'real men' didn't need non-sacred / non-official kiddie scripts that represented sounds, apparently). In fact, there existed a writing system that had always been invented by and exclusively used by women - men didn't let them use 'manly writing', so they just shrugged and invented their own :)