Why Was It Significant That Novels Had Female Readers in the Eighteenth

Why was it significant that novels had female readers in the eighteenth century?

A) Novels enabled women's literacy rates to surpass those of men.
B) Without women, the novel would not have persisted as a genre because men at the time did not read novels.
C) Novels opened new psychological horizons beyond women's sheltered lives.
D) An occupying activity in itself, reading novels kept women from becoming writers.
E) Novels filled women's heads with dangerous fantasies.