You cannot expect to be taken seriously arguing that women are equal to men in the base teachings

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Jesus Christ.

Catholicism was founded upon egalitarian approach, in that it implied new freedoms for women... and well nothing changed overnight, the spread, influence and attitudes of the Catholic Church though out Europe granted women opportunity to regard themselves as independent personalities rather than as someone else's daughter, wife, or mother... and afforded them the ability to engage in public life beyond prior constraints. The Church not only allowed women the opportunity at productive lives outside marriage and children, but granted them access to education, financial support and by the turn of the middle ages Catholic women became powerful institutions within Europe and gained powers that were never available to women in previous Roman or Germanic societies.

Women who had been looked down upon as daughters of Eve, came to be looked upon as objects of veneration and inspiration. The medieval development of chivalry, with the concept of the honor of a lady and the ensuing knightly devotion to it, was derived from Mariological thinking, and contributed to it.[21] The medieval veneration of the Virgin Mary was contrasted by the fact that ordinary women, specially those outside aristocratic circles were looked down upon, and at a time when women could be viewed as the source of evil, the concept of the Virgin Mary as mediator to God positioned her as a source of refuge for man, affecting the changing attitudes towards women.

http://books.google.ca/books/about/Daughters_of_the_Church.html?id=Z6e5yCGh1JsC&redir_esc=y

The Catholic Church drastically changed not only societies view and treatment of women, but also offered women of all social classes vastly expanded opportunities outside of dependence on family or a husband. Women's institutions in the Church grew with power and it set the foundations that over time grew into greater and greater rights towards women.

Even in modern times, the Catholic Church has been a source for progress of women in the public sphere. It was one of the mainstays behind the push for woman's suffrage.