Bias is a stats term. I think if we look through history - there has clearly been a change in treatment of women over time. Why is it that now the treatment i

Bias is a stats term. I think if we look through history - there has clearly been a change in treatment of women over time. Why is it that now the treatment is reliably indicative of some underlying quality that has remained static through time? Couldn't it just as easily be that the treatment of women currently isn't indicative of some underlying truth? What would indicate to us that now over other times the differing treatment was in line with underlying qualities and not cultural assumptions?