The theme of this whole section in Ephesians is imitation of Christ through love, which includes verse 21 of ch 5
"submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."
The following then reads,
αἱ γυναῖκες τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ
"wives, to your husbands as to the Lord"
The lack of a verb here is because the verb is "borrowed" from the preceding statement, "submitting to one another".
It doesn't end with what wives ought to do, it then tells husbands how THEY are supposed to submit to their wives. Because the point here is "submitting to one another out of reverence to Christ".
"Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,"
What does Paul mean? He means this, "For the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many." (Mark 10:45), or to use Paul's own language from elsewhere,
"Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this same mind in you which was in Christ Jesus. Who, though by nature God, did not regard equality with God something to exploit, but emptied Himself, by taking on the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Philippians 2:4-8)
Christ came as a servant, serving, offering Himself. He submitted Himself, out of love, to us exchanging His life for ours.
It doesn't end here either. This continues uninterrupted into the next chapter,
"Children, obey your parents" (Ephesians 6:1) but the inverse is also given, "Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger"; parental love and responsibility isn't about being "in charge", it's about devoting one's life to serving one's children so that children are raised to healthy adulthood. To be a father or a mother is to be a servant to your children.
And Paul continues:
"Slaves, obey your earthly masters" (Ephesians 6:5)
And still also,
"Masters do the same to them" (Ephesians 6:9)
In Greco-Roman society telling wives to submit to their husbands, children to obey their parents, and slaves to obey their masters is hardly radical nor interesting--that is just how that society functioned at the base level. Those were the ordinary social mores that everyone who lived then and there operated with. The interesting parts are the ways Paul subverts the ordinary social relationships by flipping the script; that there isn't some imposed social structural hierarchy; it's not top to bottom, it's bottom to top. Christ is Lord from the bottom, Christ is Lord through His serving--and so it's not because of a structural hierarchy that wives submit to their husbands, it's out of love, freely given love borne out of devotion and imitation to Jesus--and husbands are to do the exact same thing. Husbands are called to the bottom, to serve, to give, to submit to their wives even as Christ became the Slave of slaves to give His life freely out of love. Children obey your parents? Of course, that's normal--but it's not a one way street, parents are servants of their children, "Do not provoke your children to anger" is about respect and reciprocity, if you have raised your child the way the child should be raised, they will not scorn you, begrudge you, or disown you once they are grown (i.e. "provoked to anger"). Telling slaves to obey? In a society where slavery was just a mundane fact of life the idea that a slave ought to do what he is told by the household head is entirely mundane--but to tell the master to serve, submit, and be a slave to his slave? That's pretty radical.
The whole point: We behold God in Christ, and God condescends in Christ to be a Servant.
"Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God." (Ephesians 5:1)
And if you really want to go wild and do some serious exegetical work, notice the "Therefore", because that tells us this itself is continuing from before, where we see,
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." (Ephesians 4:31)
Which is just the last verse of chapter 4 where Paul talks about how Christians are to live radically new lives, borne of that newness that comes from Christ; having put away the former Old Man to put on the New (Ephesians 4:20-24). And all of this extends from the earlier call to unity in the Church and the call to an upward calling in Christ who shows us the new way to be human ("until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to full adulthood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children,")
Spiritual adulthood in Christ, which does not look like being petty child-tyrants to one another, but full devotion and love, speaking truth, giving of ourselves to others rather than taking from others and giving to ourselves. And so much more.
No. Paul is not telling women they are the property of their husbands. And all the Complimentarian language about "ontological equality" is mere smoke to cover the fact that one is saying men and women are not actually equal at all; and that women are supposed to be less than men. And now you are using this as a justification to say husbands should have the authority, as heads of the household, to vote; and thus deprive everyone else of their enfranchisement in a democratic process.
