Women walking behind men

Although I will admit the idea of a woman walking behind a man more
then likely had more to do with his status and/or gender than with
protecting the woman. However, in the West there is still a tendancy
(although not always, and it seems to be decling slowly) for men,
even when walking side by side with a woman, to walk on the side that
the road is on. There may be others, but the explaination that I
have heard for this social phenomenea stems from the time in which
horses were used, and could easily go off the street and cause
serious injury or death. So there is a possiblity of some form of
protection with women walking a step behind a man (please don't flame
me feminists :D).