I think you saw the symptoms and misinterpreted the reasons. It may be more of a division of labor: I lift the heavy things, change the oil, repair all of the appliances. So you do the easy things.
I get that, but at my job, the managers are almost all male, and the consensus seems to be that the people doing traditionally pink collar work don’t do ANY work, even though heaven forbid that one of them should call out, leaving management to cover the shift. (They then complain how tired they are, how they have to abandon their own jobs, etc etc, oh the humanity! but after it’s over with, they will go back to saying that pink collar work isn’t work). One way I have found that you can be treated like a human being is if you are seen lifting heavy objects and fixing things. It works, so I do it rather than enduring the complete lack of respect of being treated like a freeloader when I am nothing of the sort!
Two things, first, when you cut out the extended family you just end up with a young couple that will be quickly over their heads with the workload that children bring. You will also have an early shutoff of the number of kids that can be safely cared for if there aren’t aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins to pick up the extra work even if the woman stops working outside the home.
Second, when there is only one inexperienced guy around and the workload is multiplying, he’s apt to be like the managers I spoke of who pretend that the pink collar workers are just freeloaders who do nothing. It may take an older more experienced man (or manager) to point out a better way (while at the same time allocating resources to help relieve the burden). You get that with extended family, and there is also some of that where I work. Upper management has evidently grown alarmed about the staff turnover and has begun to take steps.
The nuclear family alone isn’t going to be stable. It needs to be plugged into a larger family unit. Think of a single nuclear family like a new small business. Is it more likely to succeed as a standalone sole proprietorship or as a franchise of a larger business?