When studying any ancient civ. you'll quickly learn that women had no place in politics or public works. In fact, the only place (in most societies) where women were respected was through religious worship of goddesses. We've always credited this to the fact that women were not 'fit' for public office and responcibility (they were uneducated, emotionally fragile, seductive etc...) But in ancient times women were quite scary to men... and it created a lot of hardships for women.
The female body itself was a mystery. Ancients knew little of procreation and saw women as both terrible and essential life givers. The earth and universe, rivers, forrests and what have you, would all be considered life forces and therefore feminine. This would obviously influence ancient people to fear and to pay respect to higher powers of a female sex... and of course- the gods needed mothers, sisters and wives just as mortal men did.
I think the decline had a lot to do with the increase in knowledge of natural sciences- (in addition to the rising popularity of monotheism) As men began to understand more about the natural processes in the world around them- (menstration, consception, birth, lactation and other nasty girl-things) the female sex slowly lost its mystique and intrique.