To a large extent voting laws were based off land ownership. The man voted because the land was in his name, but it was viewed as the vote of the family.

In the west , more than most other places, you had many single women who owned land and ran businesses. It just made sense that these women, as land owners, should vote.

As I said, speculation and conjecture at best. History simply can't answer why. Who, what, and where can generally be answered fairly easily. When and how can be answered relatively accurately in the more recent history; what the further back you go the harder these questions are to answer. The question of why is simply not addressed in history and can't be.

I think the implication of your question is how is it that some developed this metallurgy when others did not?

This is a question that history can't answer. History can't even tell us why or how those that did develop steel learned how to do it. These questions are more of a metaphysical nature. Any attempt to answer them through history is going to be speculation and conjecture at best.

So there are reasons why I believe that some developed these technologies and others did not, but they are reasons based in my religious beliefs not in historical accounts.

The idea that historically people have only been valued for their economic worth is a very limited and foolish reading of History.

Peasants were generally only conscripted when they needed to defend their hometowns, or nearby areas. They rarely traveled with actual military forces.

The only time medieval peasants went into direct combat was when they were in open rebellion, or when they were defending their hometowns. They would not have traveled with an organized military force as they would be more a hinderance than a help from a logistics perspective.

And the idea that life had little meaning is just not accurate.