Nevertheless, there's no question women have lower status than men in Hinduism. The difference in status was almost certainly not so dramatic in the distant past. Hindus scriptures written centuries ago describe women and teachers and philosophers and show women receiving initiations they are denied today. The Veda itself includes women among its highest seers.
Some of the unfortunate problems women experience in Hindu culture today may be due to 1,500 years of nearly continual invasions from the north, beginning around 500 B.C.E. To protect mothers, wives, and daughters, women were increasingly confined inside the house, cutting back their wider social roles.
But the worst problems Hindus women experience are due to the horrible practice of selling sons. Though outlawed in modern India, sadly this custom is still widely practiced.
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