The doctrinal position is unambiguous. Guru Nanak Dev Ji's line in Asa di Var on why a woman should be called inferior. Guru Amar Das Ji appointing women as preachers among the twenty-two manjis and opposing sati and the veil. Mata Khivi Ji named in scripture. Kaur as a name a woman keeps. The amrit ceremony administered to women and men on identical terms.
The practice does not match it. Women may not perform kirtan or seva inside the sanctum of the Harmandir at Amritsar. The SGPC has passed resolutions on the point and the position has not changed. Women are rarely among the Panj Piare at major ceremonies.
The Rehat Maryada permits women to do everything a man may do. The institutions have not implemented it.
Punjab's child sex ratio, dowry practice, and the position of daughters in land inheritance are the wider context and are not doctrinal questions at all.
Both halves of this belong on the same page. A tradition that said what Guru Nanak Dev Ji said in 1520 and cannot let a woman sing inside a building in 2026 is describing a gap between text and institution, and there is no version of Punjab's story that is honest without it.
The teaching is explicit. Women may take amrit, may be among the Panj Piare, may perform kirtan and may read the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and the Asa di Var argues the case directly.
The practice is not. Women are not permitted to perform kirtan at the Harmandir sanctum, a restriction that has been challenged repeatedly and has not been removed.
Mata Khivi Ji, Mata Sundari Ji, Mata Sahib Kaur Ji, Bibi Bhani Ji and Mai Bhago Ji are the named figures, and the number named is very small compared with what the institutions actually rested on.