
The hadith says:
Many men attained perfection, but no women attained perfection except 'Âsiyah the wife of Pharoah and Maryam bint 'Imrân. (Mishkât al-Masâbîh 3/118)
This hadith was used by scome scholars - including Imâm Ibn Hazm, Imâm Al-Qurtubî and Imâm Abu al-Hasan Al-Ash'arî - as evidence in favor of the prophethood [
Nubuwwah] of women since they argued perfection implies Prophethood.
The response given by other scholars to their argument - including Imâm Al-Qâdi 'Iyâd and Imâm An-Nawawî - was that the hadîth does not necessitate prophethood and in the absence of clear and irrefutable evidence we cannot claim anyone to be a Prophet. They said perfection simply implies attaining completion in all virtues. There were few non-prophets - amongst both men and women - who attained such a status. These scholars also point out that there are hadith which say that Khadija was clearly amongst the perfect women (related by Ibn Mardawayh) and that Fatima would be the leader of the women in paradise apart from Maryam (related by Ahmad, its isnad is jayyid). If this is the case however, then it negates the literal exception of the first hadith which restricts perfection to only two women.
Whichever of these two views is correct, it changes absolutely nothing in terms of beliefs, concepts or actions. And Allah swt knows best.