It seems small minded and petty because it is. It's all based on attitudes of the participants, both male and female. The man usually feels the need to assert himself because he's the "guy". His own knowledge base is irrelevant, it's a "guy" thing so he has to act like he knows. The woman doesn't want to disagree with the "guy" because she doesn't want to hurt his feelings, because women are all about "feelings". If spouses enroll in a class, on anything, the best thing to do is separate them if possible. They both learn better that way since it eliminates the hunter/gather dynamic.
Personally, I don't find women to be better students than men, just better in some ways and worse in others. Women are far more open to initial instruction and seem to be better students, but only to a point. Women suck at critical analysis in a training environment. Once men have the nuts and bolts down, they're far better at analyzing a problem and taking corrective action. Quite often I find women need much more hand holding in this area. I don't think it's because they aren't as smart or less capable than men, not at all. It's all about those god damned "feelings" again. A man gets to a certain point and past that he'd like to be left alone to handle it himself. I've seen women fail to take basic corrective action on something like a simple malfunction and instead, look to the instructor for help even after they've been instructed on how to deal with it. I'm convinced this isn't because they haven't learned or can't comprehend, but rather entirely based upon their subconscious concern for the instructors feelings. "That's his/her area and I want him/her to feel included." kind of thing. Men need to get over being the know it all knuckle draggers and women need to get over their ingrained need to make everyone happy.
I always advocate a spouse getting training from an outside source. As an example, a few years ago, my wife wanted to get back into shooting after being away for many years. She kept blowing me off and making the same procedural errors time after time, some of them involving safety concerns. We finally had a come to Jesus about it and I told her she could either quit blowing me off or find another instructor, everything was fine after that. My wife is also a teacher and they make the absolute WORST students, just like doctors make the worst patients. Fact is, no one feels free to blow you off more than family since any professional boundry is nonexistent.
Women need their own classes, because it's easier to go to special snowflake class than it is to learn to make reasonable demands and deal with gender shit. It's called avoidance. It's not politically correct to say this, but women have their own set of baggage they need to get over. Having gender specific training in any field, while the current snowflake hotness, isn't the way to overcome that.