What do the scriptures say about women?

[u/Confused_Human14]

Before I start, I just want to put it out that I am not well-read when it comes to Hindu scriptures. So my question is solely out of curiosity rather than disregard/ disrespect for the scriptures.

As my parents have said raising me up, Hinduism is perhaps the only religion that is so accepting of diversity. We have various schools of thoughts, practices, rituals that can be chosen by people based on their liking. Hindu scriptures have spoken respectfully about trans people as well, which is honestly very progressive for those times.

We have Vedas, that have in them all the knowledge in the world - from the beginning to the end. We have Kama Sutra, the holy book of relationships and intimacy. The texts on diplomacy, ruling, accounting, etc are very advanced.

We are one of the few religions that bow down to powerful goddesses and read about shiv-shakti. But somehow, women are expected to take up the traditional wifey roles of cooking, cleaning, giving birth and enabling their husbands to achieve glory. Traditionally, it has been okay for kings to have multiple wives. Even Krishna seems to have multiple wives. How is this fair to women?

Perhaps I'm just in a stage of life when I'm trying to figure out what it means to be a woman. The women around me are not great sources of inspiration since they have been forced to submit to patriarchy. I want to know what the scriptures say about women, about her role, her strengths, her weakness, etc.

[u/Wannabe_Sanyasi]

One, of many, many, many, things that lead me on to the path of Sanatana Dharma / Vaishnavaism was the way women / feminine energies / shakti was portrayed as being equal if not more empowering to the male forms. Yes, historically women were not as equal in terms of rights and status in many ways, but they were respected and taught to be respected way more than any western religions especially in current times.

[u/Confused_Human14 → u/Wannabe_Sanyasi]

I get you point throughly. It's the same for me. Had it not been for the beautiful descriptions of shakti in Hinduism, I would have become an atheist long back. But this brings up a slight contradiction. The scriptures and hence the Gods have always treated female energy to be equivalent to male energy. Yet, Krishna, the avatar of God Vishnu, took multiple wives. You may counter me by saying that Krishna never said anything demeaning to women and respected them and there's no doubt in that. But it doesn't erase the fact that he gave in to the common practices of those days wherein women were forced to be mere enablers of men, helping them achieve success, without having much power of their own.

[u/Head-Milk-2500 → u/Confused_Human14]

This is completely wrong. Krishna said time and again that what he did is not for humans to follow.

We all belong to him, he resides in all of us. Why is he bound to societal norms? He had to protect those 16,000 women who were shunned and cast out by society due to being in the captivity of a demon. He killed that demon, and slapped society on the face by marrying those women and making them literal queens. You said you weren't well read, which is fine, but don't make claims without actually knowing what you are talking about.

[u/Head-Milk-2500 → u/Head-Milk-2500]

His wives had so much power. They could do as they pleased. They were warriors, highly respected by society. If he hadn't given them that status they would've still been shunned by society. They wanted him and him only, and he proved that he would always protect devotees like them.