I just caught up to here (been busy lately), and noticed the donnybrook about men and women and the vote. Most here mentioned the '60s, however you can track the road to prohibition to the woman's-right-to-vote starting in the late 1800s. Now I know I'm gonna step on a few toes, but I'll move forward (hopefully out of range of M'ette and her deer hunting technique).
Here's a news flash (for some): Men and Women are different.
We could go into all the different ways that they're different, but I don't feel like a joint Biology/Anthropology rant. Viva la difference. You can, if you wish to, link the growth of the "daddy state" to the rise of the woman voter. Speaking in generalities, (as we have to do here when we break a 7 billion+ population down to two elements) women look for security. If it cannot be found in a mate or husband, she now can cast a vote to secure her security. Now you can save all the gasps and "how-could-he"s to yourself. It isn't chauvinism, but biology. Men don't have babies. (Don't go there. It's another thread entirely.)
When America abandoned the original intent of the Constitution, it opened these kind of doors. It's simple political entropy.