For about two thousand years the Aes Sedai WERE the most powerful and wisest of humanity, with only a few exceptions. They simply knew more of the world of everyone else in history, politics, and general knowledge. A middle aged Aes Sedai had still lived longer than anyone who couldn't channel, and an old Aes Sedai had the knowledge of generations. They had every right to believe they were the best, because they were. The new initiates would pick up on this right away, and try to act like those Aes Sedai who had been around for two hundred years.

It's when things started changing that they became ignorant. All of a sudden there were people who had gone through harsher training and lived for just as long. Mat is still young(three years ago he really was the fool Egwene thinks of him as), but because of the extra memories he's at least as good a general as Gareth Bryne, who has had a lifetime of proving himself. Rand recieved a crash course in politics from Moiraine, Elayne, and others, and had to grow up really fast. But that's besides the point.

A lot of the examples of the main female characters talking down to the men are actually just that. It's the way the women in the world think, not just the Aes Sedai. Min thinks the same things of Rand as Elayne does.

I'd just like to point out something that's being totally ignored. When a sparker first channels, they usually cause something to happen, but don't experience the heightened senses that those who are more experienced get. There is no indication that they could hold the source unconciously and not channel. In fact, because they can not sense the source and don't know how to embrace it, I find it very unlikely that they could hold the source for very long under any conditions(even life or death). Also, a learner can't touch the source until they are guided to it. That is a fact. Being able to achieve the oneness is not the same technique as embracing the source, even though they start the same. One final point, Galad embraced the oneness and gained apparently heightened senses on command. There is no way that someone could embrace the source on command their first time, and by Galad's thoughts this is familiar to him.

Galad may be able to learn to channel, but that scene has no bearing on that. All the scene proves is that Galad is a swordsman of blademaster quality, which we already knew. The scene is written similarly to some of the scenes where Rand channels, but if you go back to some of Rand's early fights, specifically against High Lord Turak in TGH, that it is written similarly, but with specific mention that Rand was not holding Saidin.