I do have a reasonable theory. The late 18th/early 19thc was a time of increasing emphasis on gender essentialism and differentiation. Separate spheres, angel in the house, Republican motherhood, etc. etc. etc.

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I'll come out and say it: I don't KNOW why the shift occurred. Nobody does, and anybody who says they do know is over-confident. But ...

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So, simply from a logical standpoint, the idea that this is an issue of function doesn't work. The early modern buttons for women were often high fashion and would have been more likely to have been done up by a maid than the universal 19thc ones.

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By the middle of the 19th century, it was the norm for women's bodices (in daywear) to fasten with buttons in front, and to do so with the buttons on the wearer's left.

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In the early 19th century, gowns didn't tend to button in front, but outerwear did. The buttons could be on either side, but by the 1830s it was more common to see them on the wearer's left (like the earlier spencer below), the modern "standard" for women.

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