The exhortation of women to keep silent doesn't mean that they can't talk at all, and can't play a part in the service. Paul makes this clear in other places where he references women giving prophecies etc.
Looking at 1st Timothy 2:12 is instructive because in this passage Paul also tells women to "be quiet". However, the words involved don't mean be quiet in the sense of don't talk. They mean by quiet in the sense of be content and peaceful. Specifically in that passage Paul is saying that women should be content with their God given roles and not try to take over roles that are not given to them.
One of the problems in understanding this issue is that protestant churches have lost or rejected much of the ancient and traditional understanding of Church leadership. The episcopos (overseer/bishop), and presbyter(elder/priest) roles were based off of the Old Testament typology of the temple priesthood. Most protestants won't accept this because they don't want to think of them as priests. Its too catholic for protestant tastes
Never the less, the leadership roles here were ordained roles that were endowed with divine authority to teach and to apply discipline to the body of Christ. Those roles were only given to men by God, by the very order of nature itself.
In the OT the very concept of priesthood is male and paternal. The role of priesthood belonged to the Father and to the eldest son. OT Israelite religion is actually very unique in the fact that it has no concept whatsoever of a priestess.
This is often relegated to modern prejudice to being some relic of ancient sexism and misogyny. What they always ignore in this argument is that every other culture around the Israelites had priestesses, despite being even more sexist and misogynistic than the Israelite culture.
In other words, the lack of priestesses has nothing to do with women being socially discriminated against. It has everything to do with theology and the biblical understanding of priesthood.
In the biblical view men and women were created with distinctly different roles to play in the order of creation. The starting point to understand this is realizing that humanity as a whole was created with the intent that we would be the image and likeness of God. Both men and women have a role to play in that purpose. The first thing that you should take from this is that the roles of and the relationship between man and woman are sacred. They are holy. The natural aspects of the relationship and of our gender and sex are secondary to the sacred aspects which are our true reason for being.
The role of woman in this sacred drama is not less sacred, nor less important. In some ways it could actually be argued to be more sacred. The reason that Eve was created last is because she was intended to be the pinnacle, the crown of creation.
In the creation story each time God creates something he almost always pronounces the creation to be good. The only thing in the entire creation account that God says is "not good" was Adam without Eve. Adam was ordained by God to be the King of creation, yet Eve was to be his crowning glory. Adam was established by God as the priest of creation, and Eve was to be his sacred temple. Eve was the completion of creation, because she was the completion of the image and likeness of God in Adam.
The two, together, completed the image of God, as well as foreshadowing the relationship of God with his people.
The reason that Christianity has always insisted on an all male ministerial priesthood is because Christianity fundamentally holds that there is ultimately only one Priest, namely Jesus Christ. All ministerial priests who serve in the temple act in the person of Jesus Christ. That is to say they are ordained to be his personal representatives and he is present in them when they perform their ministry. Because Jesus Christ is a man, and all priests are types of him, priesthood is by definition male. It is not that priesthood was assigned to men, or to maleness, but rather that man was created to image priesthood. Priesthood is also definitively linked in this sacred drama to the role of Fatherhood. Women attempting to take on the role of ministerial priesthood is essentially the same as women attempting to take on the role of fatherhood. It is not something that shouldn't be done... it is something that CAN'T be done. At best we can make a pretense of it.
What then of the role of women?
In the sacred drama that is our human role in the world, man was created to represent God and woman was created to represent God's beloved. That is to say, woman was created to represent God's people, his bride, his temple.
The defining point of any temple is that it is where the presence of God dwells. It is the presence of God that makes a temple a temple. In creation as well as in the later covenants with Israel, God had a physical temple on earth. A place where his presence dwelt.
So how then do we understand the role of woman as the temple to man's priesthood?
The reason that God's image in humanity was not complete with Adam alone, and without Eve, is because God's eternal and deepest identity is love and relationship. God could not be imaged by a lone solitary man. God could only be imaged in the relationship of a man and a woman who become one in the bonds of love. As a result it can truly be said that God's presence as well as his image in humanity was only fulfilled when Adam joined himself to Eve in the first marriage. Thus Eve was his temple because only in the union of love with her did he fulfill his priestly role and fully image God.
This type, or symbol, is also demonstrated in that the physical temples and tabernacles of the Old Testament were meant to foreshadow God's ultimate temple which is his people, the bride of Christ. Here again we see that Christ, the husband is the priest, and his bride is his temple. This divine mystery revealed in Jesus Christ and his Church, was foretold from the beginning of time, in the created order of Man and Woman.
Lastly, it should be noted that no true priest would ever view the temple as merely his property, or a thing to be used, or something simply meant to serve him. Both priest and temple are sacred, set apart to God. They belong together and are complimentary to each other. In a certain sense neither can said to be greater than the other, for what is a priest without a temple? and what is a temple without a priest? The temple in a certain sense exists to facilitate the priest's ministry to God. Yet in the same way the priest serves the temple because it is his ministry to tend to the temple and to protect it.
