This idea has been played to excess and has been completely blown out of proportion.

By a very wide margin, the most significant threats prehistoric women faced were not things a big strong man is going to save them from.

Is Grod going to beat up a difficult childbirth or high risk pregnancy?

Perhaps Brun will be the one to whoop that gangrenous infection into submission?

Oh, I know, when sickness hits the tribe Broud will scare it away using only the magical awesomeness of his barbaric yawp.

No? Well, maybe they’ll have more luck just sacrificing a virgin.

Joking aside, my point is not to bash men but to point out how overly inflated masculine prowess is considered in relation to what women would want in a mate or would need to be protected from then or now.

Women want men who will help raise the children they also create. Women want men who won’t be a constant nuisance. Women want men who won’t abandon their children to the elements when something happens to them (like dying in childbirth having another one). Women prefer men who are going to make an effort to stick around and not needlessly risk themselves, the family, or the tribe.

Economic necessity was not a factor in prehistoric times. Men did not provide for women, they provided for the tribe and the tribe provided for them from the provisions of women and juveniles. Meat calories provided by male hunting were essential but not more essential or necessary than the calories provided by women and children (who provided the bulk of a tribe’s calories).

The body cannot even make use of those protein nutrients without nutrients from foraged plant sources. Further, those protein sources can be found in other places than large game though larger game has the benefit of feeding more people at once and providing larger hides, bladders, sinew, and bones.