I would be very interested in a solid historical study of this sort of thing.
In the past, a man would marry a woman, she might have a child or two, then die in childbirth. Not uncommon. The man would marry again. Might happen again. He might marry a third time. All the fairy tales with Stepmothers in them were there for a reason. Men often went through more than one wife. The flip-side of that is that Joe has three wives, and Sam never gets even one.
Also, a lot of men simply went seeking their fortune — joined the army for life, panned for gold in the west, logged trees in the great north woods, sailed away seeking whales in the South Pacific. Dangerous work and women didn’t tag along.
I can think of many reasons why, in the past, many men just never became attached to a woman. But by the same token, the women were more likely to become attached.
The reasons today may be different, but I’m not sure the phenomenon is entirely new.
“Also, a lot of men simply went seeking their fortune...”
Still do, just now instead of going across the world, they log into “World of Warcraft” or “Call of Duty” and seek it there.