From Wikipedia, here is a discussion of negative attitudes towards women found in Buddhism, especially in the earlier eras. Here are a couple of passages from the article:
From the earliest days of Buddhism, women were permitted to join the monastic community and participate in it, although there were certain special provisions for them known as ''The Eight Garudhammas''.[58] Susan Murcott argues that "The nun's sangha was a radical experiment for its time."[59] However, as Gurmeet Kaur writes, "Neither in society nor the monastic order are women recognized as spiritual leaders above the authority of men. Bhikkuṇī are systematically taught and told to follow the footsteps of Bhikkhu through an institutional mechanism that is so strong that whosoever tries to challenge it faces backlashes from the Buddhist community."[60]
According to Diana Paul, the traditional view of women in Early Buddhism was that they were inferior.[61] Rita Gross agrees that "a misogynist strain is found in early Indian Buddhism. But the presence of some clearly misogynist doctrines does not mean that the whole of ancient Indian Buddhism was misogynist."[62]
According to foundational texts of Buddhism such as the Pali Canon, Gautama Buddha sometimes displayed a negative view of women: "One must beware of women. For every wise woman, there are a thousand foolish or wicked women. The nature of a woman is as unclear as the path a fish takes in water. She is wild and underhanded like a bandit and rarely speaks the truth; for her, truth and falsehood are the same."[58] According to some scriptures and traditions, the Buddha believed that a person's karma had to be especially bad in their past lives in order to be reborn as a woman, thus making it that much harder for them to discover enlightenment.[58] The buddha initially refused to induct women into the monastic community, but reluctantly permitted them after being convinced by his step mother and his discipline, Ananda.[63]
There are statements in Buddhist scripture that appear to be misogynist, such as depicting women as obstructers of men's spiritual progress or the notion that being born female leaves one with less opportunity for spiritual progress. However, in societies where men have always been the authorities and the ones given wider choices, a negative view of women might be seen as simply reflecting the empirical political reality. Furthermore, the religious literature is more likely to be addressed to men. Hence we find the Buddhist emphasis on renunciation of sensual desires expressed in terms of the male's attachment to women more frequently than we find the reverse.[64] The mix of positive attitudes to femininity with blatantly negative sentiment has led many writers to characterise early Buddhism's attitude to women as deeply ambivalent.[65]
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According to Bernard Faure, "Like most clerical discourses, Buddhism is indeed relentlessly misogynist, but as far as misogynist discourses go, it is one of the most flexible and open to multiplicity and contradiction."[68] Faure states that the ancient and medieval Buddhist texts and traditions, like other religions, were almost always unfavorable or discriminatory against women, in terms of their ability to pursue Noble Eightfold Path, attain Buddhahood and nirvana.[69][70] This issue of presumptions about the "female religious experience" is found in Indian texts, in translations into non-Indian languages, and in regional non-Indian commentaries written in East Asian kingdoms such as those in China, Japan and southeast Asia.[69] Yet, like other Indian religions, exceptions and veneration of females is found in Indian Buddhist texts, and female Buddhist deities are likewise described in positive terms and with reverence. Nevertheless, females are seen as polluted with menstruation, sexual intercourse, death and childbirth. Rebirth as a woman is seen in the Buddhist texts as a result of part of past karma, and inferior than that of a man.[69]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Buddhism
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