Women Scientists

I expect you know that in the eighteenth century women were not only allowed to study the Natural Sciences in Italian universities (particularly at Bologna), but could and did take degrees and become university teachers? And that this happened with Church - and even papal - sponsorship and encouragement; long before English universities had any public teaching of Sciences or allowed women anywhere near the doors of lecture rooms? Not surprisingly, that erudite pontiff, Papa Lambertini aka Bendict XIV, was the pope involved. His true enlightenment compares favourably with the spurious Enlightenment of  Rousseau, who believed that the education of women should only be directed to the end of training them to massage the male ego.

This looks to me like a detail of history which does not very often get publicity. It subverts the barmy views of Bishop Williamson, who seems to side with Rousseau against Benedict XIV, as well as the predictable assumptions of Catholicophobe journalists and pundits.