The parsha says that the men contributed their gold after the women. For the word 'after', the Torah uses the word 'al' which literally means 'on'. Allegorically, however, this means that there was something high about what the men did compared to the women...

The women did not contribute any jewelry to the building of the golden calf, whereas the men did. As such, the men had to do teshuva, repentance, in order to donate their gold. The mishna states that "In a place where a bal teshuva (person who repents) stands, a righteous person cannot stand."