Both women and men are required to wear the 5 k's. Guru Nanak stipulated, at a time I should add when the status of women in India was very low, that men and women are equal in all matters, especially spiritually. He told them not to cover their faces with a veil (I think, unless they are singing and dancing at the same time).
When travelling in India, there is a rule of thumb that a Sikh can always be trusted, which is unusual for India. But I have found that the quality of Sikhs tends to improve the closer to Punjab you get. ('Pun' pronounced like the joke of 'making a pun' - should have been spelt 'pan' as it means 5, for the five rivers.)
In a great book Julie read recently of a woman who lived with a Sikh man in the Punjab for a year, she said her man (they may have married - not sure), who was actually a member of the wild Nihangs, used to travel by hopping on a train without baggage or money. He could travel anywhere in India as free as a bird.
