Genesis 12:13

"...Say you are my sister, for then I will be treated well for your sake..."

When Abram and Sarai move to Egypt, Abram fears his beautiful wife will attract Pharaoh's attention, thus risking Abram's life.  So he cooks up a plan that ends up with Sarai in Pharaoh's harem.  Very little is said about Sarai's role in Abram's charade.  Obviously she went along with it.  But did she protest?  Would Abram have listened if she did?  What were her thoughts, feelings, and fears? 

In fact, from the Fall up to this part of the Bible, there's not much said about women.  They're listed only in conjunction with their men.  How did Eve, the Mother of all Living, raise her children without the support of friends and older women who had already been there, done that?  Did Noah's wife have doubts about the ark, or was she as faithful as her husband?  Did she pick up a hammer and work alongside her husband?  Was she in charge of feeding the lions?  What about the Tower of Babel?  Were those women as wrongfully ambitious as their spouses?  We don't know.  But I would venture to guess that, as elsewhere in the Bible and throughout history, God rewards the faithful and punishes the unjust.

So now we come to Sarai.  She had already followed her husband when he left their homeland to trek into the unknown.  But in this story, he's not asking her to pack up and move.  He's telling her to lie and make nice with Pharaoh - all so that Abram's life will be spared (no mention of whether or not this would benefit Sarai - I'm thinking that wasn't Abram's chief concern). 

What's a wife to do when her husband's leadership would cause her to sin?  Sarai's life was probably about to be compromised either way - if Pharaoh wanted her, he'd take her.  Maybe that's the reasoning Abram used on her.  So if God says the man is the head of the house, and women are to submit, does that mean we are to always blindly obey?

No.  Our submission must always be to God first.  We are to trust God and be obedient to Him.  And if we are in a situation - as Sarai likely was - where we do not have the option of defying our husband's wishes, we should cry out to God for help.  He hears, and He will answer.