This is one driver that's shared with many animals but not the primary driver that sets humans apart.
Women do play a significant role in selecting for some traits. Most people assume blond hair/blue eyes is driven by men choosing them but actually it originates from mothers preferring this in their babies. The proof is that many more babies have blond hair/blue eyes than adults. The color change to brown occurs after the children are more viable and don't need their mothers so much. This is hard to understand in modern times, that a mother would prefer blond children to their others, but up until very recently food was not reliable and many times mothers did have to choose favorites.
The selection of the blond/blue trait remaining in adulthood is primarily male driven but the initial trait was caused by the preference by women.
And the military has lots of bucks so I think the scientists market their knowledge to the military in a quest for funding, which drives the equation. Scientists want to put a man in orbit, scientists have no money, scientists go up to the Generals and say we need some money and here's what we can offer you, scientists get money, Generals get Titan missiles, scientists put a man in orbit. Everyone's happy. Rinse, repeat as desired.
Back to women and their significant roles, I remember hearing a comedian talking about guys and their expensive, flashy cars. Guys don't like to have a big, expensive, flashy cars, but women like big, flashy, expensive cars, so guys will go out and get flashy cars. I think you could go back in time to the era of caves and fire and discovering the wheel and find the same motivations.