I don't think religion has any real factor on the treatment of women. It is often used as an excuse for treatment, but it not the actual cause of mistreatment. The problem is the way men think about women, and the way women allow themselves to be treated.
Women are treated (by some) as objects. This is done through modeling, prostitution, pornography, or forced marriages. The circumstances that caused these women (and girls) to be put into the situation may have given them little choice, but the mental image of women being weaker or less capable than men begins at this stage. By seeing women in such compromising or objectifying situations, it causes both men AND women to see women as weaker, needing protection, or less capable than men.
Because of this mindset, others subconsciously treat women unequally. Women don't get promotions because, subconsciously, men don't see them as strong as a man would be in that position, so they get passed over. When it comes time for pay increases, that same stereotype causes women to be treated as less capable than a man. The same difficulties apply in scholastics, entertainment, and politics. The rare woman who refuses to fall into the stereotype then gets labeled as 'bitchy' or 'cold' or other similar negative adjectives, thereby attacking them socially in an effort to 'put them in their place'.
So, there is no easy solution to the problems women face, but it IS within their power to change people's attitudes by standing together, united, and acting to remove all the possible ways that women can be treated as objects and playthings. It also cannot be a man who does these things for them, because of the way it would be portrayed, where a man had to help a woman, thereby the woman was too weak to do it themselves.
