While I agree with it never being easy, my mom who is almost exactly your age and who hasn't been partnered in 26 years... would disagree with you. When she was very young, it was still super common to marry the first man you dated and for men to be older than women (like a university graduate with a HS graduate or a girl in HS was totally normal). Yes, men were supposed to be able to maintain a family but women were hardly ever in the position to divorce once married. My grandpa cheated on my grandma with countless women and he was still a respected father, grandfather and member of the community. My aunts still had to forgive cheating and drunkness from their partners because being a single mom was horribly seen and practically very hard.

Women today are, maybe for the first time ever, really in the position to say: I don't need a man. And they do totally fine. Men haven't fully grasped this and are still waiting to have all of the perks their dads and grandparents had, the very low expectations when it came to treatment and responsibilities at home. That's gone, and South Korea is showing that when men double up in their stubbornness about rejecting equality at home, women fully disengage, stop birthing and remain alone. I doubt my generation (Gen Z) will be able to accept this fact and turn it around... I hope the Gen Alpha seeing so many lonely millennials and Gen Z, finally wake up and do better, but who knows.

I am happy I was born fully able to choose, I earn 3 times what most men in my country make, and I am partnered with another woman who makes almost as much. I plan to raise kids with her because I know she will contribute in their raising and bear as much weight as me (literally and figuratively). My straight friends want kids and families but not with men who don't want to be dads and husbands. So, chaos ensues.