Women In The Enlightenment

After reading about the Later Enlightenment, one main concept caught my attention. This concept was the role, however small or big, that women played in the Enlightenment. During the later Enlightenment (during the 1800's), there were some highly educated french women who were of high class. These women held litirary salons where great aristocrats, wealthy middle-class financiers, high-ranking officials, and noteworthy foreigners came and discussed uncensored observations on literature, science, and philosophy. The main role of Women in the enlightenment was to advocate it. These women were called philosophes, intellectuals who strongly endorsed progress. These women publically supported the enlightenment by discussing their opinions on the matter and basically spreading the word to other women. They also helped other philosophes to avoid censorship. The main questions here are: did women really benefit from their part, was their role in the Enlightenment that significant, and if so what did they accomplish (how did they help the enlightenment to progress)? In my opinion, no, the women's role was not that significant. They did not benefit from it because the philosophes barley mentioned the rights and abilities of women. Even Rousseau, an important enlightenment thinker, stated that men and women were in seperate spheres and that women should not be granted the same rights as man, even going as far to say that women who "pulled the strings of power" had a corrupting effect on politics and society. What do you guys think?