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It wasn't fully expressed back then, people had ways to rationalize it 'oh these natives are savages we can do as we please' or similar. Or 'we're colonizing them for their own good' - which was often true, or at least they thought they were doing that at times. Spreading Christianity was a major part of the colonial mission, from day 1.
Back in the 1600s, back at the beginning of the colonial story in North America the native Americans managed to get several devastating sneak-attack raids off on the English because the latter stupidly decided to be friends:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_massacre_of_1622
They did the same thing again in 1644 and managed to kill another few hundred people! It took enormous amounts of experience before whites worked out that they weren't friends with the native americans, that their interests were opposed. And this was quickly unlearnt after the latter were thoroughly beaten, now there are land acknowledgements and so on.
There's no cost-benefit analysis that says men gain by giving women much more power in society (thereby losing power themselves). It can only be a moral, justice-based approach.
That particular massacre was less than 10 years after open English raids on the Powhatan. They clearly knew how to fight, even though they fell for the ploy.
Guilt is a luxury. The West is unusually luxurious. This dwarfs racial makeup when predicting the popularity of guilt-based policies.
Look, I happen to believe it’s moral and just to give women power, too. It still didn’t happen without struggle. Nearly bloodless, mind you, because we actually like women and want them to like us in turn. That’s the cost-benefit.
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