I don't know how it worked in US back then, but even if it was very different, I still can't make sense out of his words.
Whom he's going to kill and whom he's going to stop raping? What does "we came from <insert sex>" have to do with it?
I was brought up in USSR, where parallel to all the commie propaganda (mostly "USA are crazy militarist fucks"), we were taught to NOT think of people as lesser or better beings because of their skin color, sex, ethnicity or even Surname (i.e. offspring from a famous family). From that perspective, concept of "gender respect" as well as "gender protection" sounds demeaning as he regards women as if they were helpless objects needing his protection.
I think it's more about hypocrisy than anything else. My interpretation:
And since we all came from a woman
Got our name from a woman and our game from a woman
- - Seeing as mothers / women are an important part of our lives. - -
I wonder why we take from our women
Why we rape our women, do we hate our own women?
- - Why do some in my culture treat weapon so poorly, which can appear in the form of phyiscal or sexual violence. The "we" in this case isn't 2pac, you, or myself. It's a criticism of those who DO treat women as being beneath the importance of men. - -
I think it's time to kill for our women
Time to heal our women, be real to our women
- - I feel the "kill for our women" line is more about protecting women. You can make the case that too is sexist, but at least it's mostly referring to biological differences in strength and the traditional male role of a protector. - -
'Cause if we don't we'll have a race of babies
That will hate the ladies, that make the babies
- - Again, expressing concern for those in his community who view women as less then men. - -
And since a man can't make one
He has no right to tell a woman when and where to create one
- - This can be seen as either a "men can't have a child on their own, so only a women should have any say when it comes to having a baby" stance, or a "men can't have a child on their own, so men and women should have equal say when it comes time to deciding when and how to start a family"
So will the real men get up
I know you're fed up ladies, but keep your head up
- - "real men" has always been a way of criticizing male behavior, which is what 2pac is doing here, when it comes to the subject of men who view women as "bitches" rather than equals.
If you like the idea of men and women being treated equally, you may appreciate
this track from the latest Wu-Tang Clan album, stressing the importance of fathers.
As Chris Rock once said of the "you don't need a man to raise a child" mentality, "Yeah, you can do it. And you can drive a bus with your feet, but that doesn't make it a good idea." Respect for the women who do so out of necessity, but statistically speaking, it's very important for children to grow up in a two parent household.