You're welcome.

On the topic of Ghost in the Shell (assuming you mean the original 1995 animated version, not the 2017 live action) I want to point out that it helped establish the cyberpunk genre, and was an inspiration for many works that came after (such as The Matrix). If the ideas presented in it didn't feel so compelling to you, it is probably because you were already exposed to them through other media which drew from GitS originally. I think the animation still holds up well today, and the music is masterful.

I think it's also important to understand that at the end of the movie, Motoko's origin (human or artificial) is uncertain, and this is intentionally unresolvable. Without the ambiguity, the conflict between Motoko and the Puppet Master doesn't matter, and the conversations they have don't make sense. The story hinges around Motoko's humanity.

Don't watch the live action version, it completely misunderstands and abuses the source material.

I've also noticed how some older movies can feel quite sexist or abusive towards women.

This is certainly true, and I think it's important to watch those examples in order to understand where we came from, and how we got to where we are today, and to help identify similar behaviors in the present. When you grow up with something it seems normal, but seeing the same thing in a less familiar context can break it loose from that perceived normalcy and make the problem more obvious. When you notice those problems in older media, take them as lessons.

It's also worth noting that acting as a profession has long been a home for progressive thinking. I think this is because portraying different characters in a believable way requires the examination of human behavior. In order to play a bad, antisocial character on the stage you must observe and study bad, antisocial behavior. Acting becomes reflective of human society.

The point being that some (some, not all) of the examples of sexism or abusiveness that you're referring to are intentionally so. That behavior was not included in the plot by accident. Writers and actors put them into their stories as a commentary on the social norms of the time when the work was made. Portraying them for an audience made the problem visible, it held a mirror up to society, it made people talk about it, it forced people to address it in some manner rather than continue to ignore it. If it seems less relevant in the present, that is because society became aware of itself, and the behavior changed.