Maybe there are legends, or even actual histories, that suggest the treatment of women was worse in pagan Arabia before Mohammed.
Of course, we know the status and treatment of women suffered a severe decline when Christian regions were Islamized, not that the feminists give Christianity credit for being the first religion to raise the status of women by abolishing first polygamy and later concubinage.
It was worse. Arab tribes routinely exposed female infants. At least the Moslems stopped that. Needed the population for their military adventures.