Q: Does Judaism consider men and women equal?
A: In this world, the woman is in the role of the receiver. Though appearing to be lower than that of the man, the giver, this role is not spiritually lower than the man's role. In the future days, the woman's role will be apparently higher than the man's role. This is the meaning of "A woman of valor is the crown of her husband." The spiritual abundance will then come from the woman to her husband.
There are certainly instances in the Torah in which we see that the woman was greater than the man. An example of this is the matriarch Sarah, who surpassed Abraham in her prophetic powers.