Old Testament professor and living legend, John Goldingay combines wit and exegesis to deliver a biblical understanding of headship:
The passage [Ephesians 5:21-33] makes it absolutely clear that a biblical doctrine of headship exists, and it makes it clear what that doctrine is. Men have the unquestionable right and responsibility to let themselves be crucified for women, and women must submit to them in the sense of letting them do that.
It is typical that Scripture should take a worldly assumption and let the cross turn it upside down. The world says, “Men have authority over women.” The Bible says, “Yes, they have the authority Christ showed on the cross.” Biblical headship is not about men deciding how to bring up the children or where the family should live. It is about letting yourself be walked on. That is the Bible’s pattern for relations between the sexes. Marriage gives you many chances to live that way; single people are called to make that their criterion for their relationships too. In our relationships, the other person comes first.
Walk On: Life, Loss, Trust, and Other Realities, 152-153