Why are Muslim/Islamic women still sitting in the back of the Mosque?

A friend Muslim woman tells me that in the Muslim religion women and children are forced to stay in the back of the mosque often times separated by a cement wall and are not allowed to address the congregation directly. Moreover, that most Muslim men treat their women as property... Is this true? How primitive! Maybe Muslim/Islamic women have a thing or two to learn from African American women who refused to sit in the back of the bus hence breaking up archaic groundless stupid traditions.