Sorry, my last engagement here and then I am out.
You have told me before that you are English
@JMISBEST, so I am calling you on it. Look up your own national history, a female earl is not an earless. She is a Countess. Earl evolved from the old Anglo-Saxon usage, but after 1066 and the Norman Conquest the terms of nobility were lined up with continental practice. Earl and Count are equavelent ranks if you look up English vs. French or German practice.
Earl was retained as a title in England, due to being embedded in the culture, but Countess was the title to be given to an Earl's wife. Equally, it would be given to females appointed to what would normally be an earldom (except that never happened until modern times due to sexism in the system).
Cheers