It's a good idea to listen to your father-in-law but perhaps take what he says with a grain of salt.
For women gained the national vote for the first time in the world in Australia and New Zealand in 1904.
And since then feminism has been remarkably successful here, partly because women have been successful in Government. For instance our Head of State is a woman as is our Commander-in-Chief. And right down the line from equal pay, to child care to maternity leave, to abortion, to free health care, to divorce laws, to education, women have made and continue to make gains. And companies here are publicly rated by the Government on how well they implement equality for women in the workplace.
We have been successful in raising the status of women and indeed the Office of the Status of Women is a high ranking Government Department and continues to raise the status of women.
Americans are remarkably ignorant about other parts of the world and your father-in-law seems no exception and keeps on repeating canards he had heard from someone else, just as you keep on repeating canards heard from your father-in-law.
In the time of the internet, ignorance is no excuse and can only be called prejudice.
And what a joke, "American norms", if we followed American norms, we would be a racist, sexist gun culture, with a working poor, obsessed with religion.
Instead we are a gun free, successful multi-cultural and prosperous society, based on the Enlightenment, that values the contribution of women.
How lucky you are to have us as an ally - it's more than you deserve.