gender in buddhism

I went to a conference on religions and culture today and was disturbed to find out about the added gathas that a woman has to learn before being ordained as a nun as opposed to a monk (a woman has to learn about 100 more sayings!) The researcher whom was an Australian woman interviewed nuns at the Dien Quan pagoda where I went with the sangha and she also said that this was due to women having weaker natures. It was said that if you had a more masculine nature that of being clear headed etc then it would be easier for you. I haven't encountered this sexism yet. The sexism may be the influence of Confucianism on Buddhism but the patriachy has influenced all world religions I guess. I discussed this with some of my friends at the sangha, and they said it was because in the beginning the sanghas for men and women were separated, the Buddha led the one for men and his mother led the one for women. So they came up with the gathas separately and of their own accord- no one sat down and said let's have more for women. They hypothesised that the Buddha's mother was stricter than the Buddha! It's something I have to investigate more thoroughly before being too discouraged.