Well, rights for women hasn't always been sacrosanct. Women were basically assumed to be vassals to their husbands or fathers for most of history, so it kind of makes sense in a twisted way if you look at it from the perspective of society over 100 years ago. The husband and wife were "supposed" to be one. But like you said it didn't work that way the other way around. It took quite a while for that to change even after the women's rights movement took off, however the women still had birthright citizenship on account of her parents until they married.
As an aside, my Great great great great grandfather came over from Denmark in 1833 and our family still bears his very Danish name until this day. I have a copy of the ship's manifest from when he landed, as well as a copy of the record of his christening in Copenhagen and his marriage license in the Georgia. It's funny how my last name is Danish, but I actually have no other known Danish ancestry other than him.