Women rights?

During this year I have learned about all kind of differences, between countries, cultures, governments, politics and religions, but the most chocking thing for me have been related races and gender conception.

I read today about female foeticide and infanticide and how this is believed to be one of the main reasons for the skewed sex ratio in India. You don't need to know about the national statistics, just walking in the street you can notice the difference between the amount of men and women.
Dowry (the money or property brought by a woman to her husband at marriage) is still a common practice in India and some other countries in the world and although it sounds for me like something from the 15th century it is still a burning issue in some societies. And we believe that we are in the 21th century...

Is a man better than a woman? If you are white does it mean that you are better than someone with dark skin? Can one single person make any difference about this?