You are right that women were "liberated" in relation to the status of women in most other places at the time (600-1100 CE). However, we should not take that idea too far. The Empress Wu spent nearly all of her life fighting for her position and authority. She was a remarkable women and a tremendous leader who appointed brilliant and capable officials for nearly her entire tenure. She went so far as to establish a wholly new dynasty based on her own rule, and with it, established a pattern for female rule that was overthrown with the renewal of the Tang under her grandson Xuanzong.
However, women made the greatest strides in the early Song years, with significant legal gains in terms of property, inheritance, and business ownership.
But, there was a backlash brewing from the late 11th century into the southern Song period - neo-confucianism. Neo-confucianists saw the role of women in Mencian terms - aka - women must obey their father, their husband and then their sons. The strict gender rules of traditional confucian thought took hold insidiously, and then more overtly in the Ming. This, not the Song, is when foot binding really became popular. Sadly, the rights of women were challenged over and over again as the Song turned into Yuan and Ming. Legal precedents for rights of ownership, inheritance, and property were overturned one after the other.

It wasn't until the nationalist era that Women were able to find similar rights and freedoms.