The ever perplexing question of life's purpose has so far been summed up for women with one term: reproduction. We have seen this as a way to subdue women to the status of walking uteruses that obey commands. With the protestant reformation and a change in thinking, women step up the ladder to a role of life partnership with their male counterparts. It is now recognized that women are creatures whom "God Himself took delight" (E&A 268) to create. The partnership between man and woman is now honored and called upon to characterize life in the garden before the fall.
Martin Luther, although he still recognizes an innate male superiority, goes far enough to say "the husband differs from the wife in no other respect than in sex" (E&A 270). Here, instead of superiority found in the total being of Adam, it is localized to sex, as Luther reinforces later. He draws parallels to humans and animals by saying "as in all the rest of nature the strength of the male surpasses that of the other sex" (E&A 270). The notion that male superiority is confined only to biology and not to creation and ordinance by god, is a huge step for women compared to our previous interpretations.
Calvin also supports the creation of women as a move towards perfection, as humans are social creatures. Our previous discussion of Eve as "defective" due to her creation from a rib is not construed as negative by Calvin. Eve's composition as part of Adam draws the two closer. The view of a rib "stolen" from Adam no longer applies, as his rib is always by his side as a faithful life partner. Calvin also agrees with Luther that the purpose of the woman is not merely reproduction, but a means for one human to combine with another on many levels. Of course, subservience is still seen, as Calvin says God perscribes the woman to help the man.
Luther and Calvin take different stances on Eve's punishments. Luther attempts to twist Eve's punishment as an almost positive sentance by highlight all the things which Eve still posesses: procreation, her sex, her husband, and "the glory of motherhood" (E&A 273). Luther goes far enough to suggest "Eve had a heart full of joy eve in an apparently sad situation" (E&A 273). This seems to be a tactic to propogate the sense of forgiveness and salvation in god, as even his punishment of sinners is not cruel and unjust.
Calvin recognizes more the punishing aspects of God's punishments, pointing out that women go from subjection to servitude. Calvin also discusses the pain that women endure during childhood, and compare it to a painless birth that might have existed in the natural state.
What's important in these readings is recognizing the new role of women as a social, intellectual, and "domestic" partner to Adam rather than merely a means of propogating seed.
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As far as creational equality goes, Luther seems to want to have it both ways. It is not simply a matter of biology, since Satan's choice to present tempatation to the woman depended on its knowledge that she was weaker in 'nature' and 'less perfect'. Nevertheless you're right in stressing an elevation in the view of the woman, but in the end it is to serve another purpose in his theology as a whole.
The expansion of women's role as partner is naturally the result of the rejection of celibacy in the Reformation, with a new view of 'family values'.
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