women are not limited in their intellectual and industrious pursuits just because of the limitation of their physical pursuits. Lady M and Mrs J, et al choose to be idle intellectually and spend their mental energy in idle gossip or vanity (regarding children or the home.) Case in point:

On Lady M:
"she humoured her children; and these were their only resources."

"Lady Middleton piqued herself upon the elegance of her table, and of all her domestic arrangements; and from this kind of vanity was her greatest enjoyment in any of their parties."

On Mrs. J:
"She had only two daughters, both of whom she had lived to see respectably married, and she had now therefore nothing to do but marry all the rest of the world."