Why women?

In each chapter of Proverbs so far it mentions women and their power over men. The woman is portrayed as the one who tempts the man and has all the control. v26 "For by means of a harlot a man is reduced to a crust of bread." Does not the man have any willpower or is the woman all powerful?



There are many instances of women being more powerful than man throughout the bible. Eve is typically the first one that comes to people's minds when they think of women who have tempted their man. But wasn't she tricked by a serpant (ie the Devil) who after all is a man?



I am a little sensitive to this subject since recently a close friend found out her spouse was unfaithful. My first reaction was not forgiveness, I told her she should ask him to leave at least for an amount of time until she could work through her feelings. She did not take my advice and chose to forgive him completely. The one issue I had regarding this is that all of the blame was put on the other woman. He was portrayed as "only a man" after all. She tempted him and he could not resist.



I don't know if I could be as forgiving in the same situation. I don't believe that it was all the other womans fault. Each party needs to take some of the blame for the indiscretion. So as I am reading Proverbs and it keeps coming up that the woman is a temptress and all powerful over a man these thoughts keep going round in my head.



Do we really have that much power over men? Why then can't we stop all of the wars, hatred and unrest in the world? After all women are supposedly more peaceful than men. Are we really as powerful as the Bible is portraying us?