I was thinking about it recently, I know in that time women were considered less than men, but I don't understand how parents who claim to love their child could hand them over to someone in marriage, sometimes against their will, to form alliances etc. did medieval families just not care about their girls as much?
When thinking of powerful families, it pays to think of them as similar, in a way, to enterprises. The family had a series of goals or duties, and each member had to play their part in order to accomplish them. That does not only apply to daughters; sons would not choose their fiancées freely either. When it comes to royalty or families with political power, marriages determined alliances, support and, in many cases, the survival of the lineage in the position they are occupying, so you can see why it might be regarded as selfish of a daughter to refuse to marry her parents' choice of a husband. That does not mean daughters were necessarily unloved. Isabella of Castile, was famous for being very affectionate to her children in public (which was strange for someone in her position), and yet, she sent her daughters Catherine and Joanna to live in England and Flanders. They were far away from home, isolated, and found themselves in unstable positions, but at the same time, Isabella did her best to help them be comfortable there. Don't quote me on this, because this is just something I remember a lecturer saying once, but she would even sent underwear to Catherine, because she was afraid she wouldn't find quality clothes in England. Also, according to a chronicler, the death of Isabella's firstborn daughter, the Queen of Portugal, was "a knife of grief that stabbed [her] spirit", and with that and the death of her son and her grandson "she lived without pleasure, [her] life and health foreshortened".
Source: Peggy K. Liss, 1992. Isabel the Queen: Life and Times