Women in Hinduism

Before going to the position of women in Hinduism,one must understand the true essence of Hindu scriptures and be able to discriminate between what is religious philosophy versus what was merely social philosophy in the ancient times.Actually many misconceptions are there that in India/Hinduism women are not given equal rights,they are forced to do anything without their permission and off course no doubt SATI pratha which really changed the view about Hinduism as far as women is concerned but let me tell you one thing that there is not a single line throughout the  Hindu sacred scriptures which supports SATI pratha.This is the social philosophy created by time to time thus the social philosophy varies with time but the religious ideals do not.The point is critical since Hinduism has a large number of scriptures and lack of right understanding as to their content and hierarchy can result in the distortion of the Hindu religious tradition.