It was a step toward individualism and away from community. Before, we voted as families.
For an interesting read, check out the newspaper articles written by Laura Ingalls Wilder in the two decades before she began publishing The Little House books. It provides some fascinating insights into the perspectives of the time (besides putting her daughter's radical libertarianism into some context). In one letter she comments that since the men weren't doing their job well, the women would step into help. In light of what was happening in the first two decades of the 20th century, the perspective makes sense, and I doubt many people would have seen where it would go. Isn't that the way it is with so many things?