I was going to quote from "The American Quilt Story The How-To and Heritage of a Craft Tradition" by Susan Jenkins and Linda Seward but I have to get permission from them to quote it here so in my own words from what I read, it was believed that women couldn't control machinery and freedom from their chores,... they would go wild. Only men were intelligent enough to work with machines but women had their tools, needle, broom and washboard.
This book is so good on history of the machine and quilting, an easy read and interesting. Very likely out of print by now but maybe could be found on B&N used or ebay.