An error in "Outlooks and Insights"

The book "Outlooks and Insights" says the following:

"Throughout our history up until our own day, it has been the Jewish women who intuitively knew how to proceed along the right path, sometimes succeeding in influencing the men and sometimes not."  (p. 186)

However, the Gemara says (BM 59a):

ואמר רב כל ההולך בעצת אשתו נופל בגיהנם שנאמר (מלכים א כא, כה) רק לא היה כאחאב וגו' א"ל רב פפא לאביי והא אמרי אינשי איתתך גוצא גחין ותלחוש לה לא קשיא הא במילי דעלמא והא במילי דביתא לישנא אחרינא הא במילי דשמיא והא במילי דעלמא

And Rav says: Nevertheless, anyone who follows the counsel of his wife descends into Gehenna, as it is stated: “But there was none like Ahab, who did give himself over to do that which was evil in the sight of the Lord, whom Jezebel his wife incited” (I Kings 21:25). Rav Pappa said to Abaye: But don’t people say a popular proverb: If your wife is short, stoop and whisper to her and consult with her? The Gemara answers: This is not difficult, as this statement of Rav instructs that one not follow her counsel in general matters; and that proverb instructs that one follow her counsel in household matters. The Gemara presents another version of this distinction: This statement of Rav maintains that one should not follow her counsel in divine matters; and that proverb maintains that one should follow her counsel in general matters.

This book is saying that we should follow the women in all matters, even spiritual ones, as it stresses the incidents of the Golden Calf and the Spies not as isolated cases of women knowing better but as cases that are emblematic. However, the Gemara says not to do that. 

Moreover, today we instructed to go rabbis with our questions, not just questions about Torah learning, but practical matters. According to this book's logic, we should go to the wives of the rabbis or to women in general. I don't imagine that when people come to any rabbis for practical advice that they refer them to women because women know better intuitively. But according to the logic, they should.

Side note, on the matter of the redemption from Egypt, which the book also mentions, there are many Aggadatos and Midrashim which give causes for the redemption other than the merit of the righteous women. The Talmud Yerushalmi says as follows: Because of five things was Israel redeemed from Egypt: (they are) the end (the predestined end of slavery), their distress, their cries, the merit of the fathers, and repentance. (Taanis 1:1) The Midrash Rabbah on Shemos offers a different list of causes: Because of four things Israel was redeemed from Egypt: They did not change their names and their language. They did not speak lashon hara. They did not involve themselves in immorality. And they did not change their family names. (MR Shemos 32:5) A Midrash in Shir HaShirim presents the same list. A Midrash in Tanchumah Balak mentions several of these achievements and mentions as well their not changing their style of clothing to that of the Egyptians. A Midrash in Pirkei d’Rebbi Eliezar attributes a quickening of the redemption to the moaning of suffering Jewish children. Rabbeinu Bachya says “Israel was redeemed from Egypt only as a reward for faith, as it says, ‘And the people believed.’ In the redemption to come, Israel will be redeemed as a reward for faith.” (Shemos 4:31)

So what was the cause of the speeding up of the redemption? Was it the merit of our righteous mothers for their support of their husbands and their families or was it the other righteous acts of the nation? The Yophe Toar asks this question and answers that “This and this caused” the redemption. (Yophe Toar, Midrash Rabbah, Shemos 1:28).

So it seems, Rabbi Akiva's statement about the merit of the righteous women shouldn't be used as material to argue for the superiority of women. He was offering one of the reasons for the redemption.