I've been thinking about this question lately and I'm not sure what the answer is. Was marriage created by women for the benefit of women?

Here are my thoughts. Before Civilization we lived in the State of nature where alphas got all the women and shit.

Then one society decided to invent monogamy or marriage. Having a woman and family incentivized betas to work together and cooperate. Previously betas didn't give a fuck because they didn't get any pussy and couldn't carry on their genes anyway. Instead of chasing women these newly wed betas invented numbers and the wheel. This unnatural society we call Civilization was able to conquer the State of Nature societies. The State of Nature societies either became civilizations of their own to compete, or got conquered by a civilization.

Of course marriage was a sweet deal for women. They got to sit at home and fetch water while men hunted saber tooth tigers and shit and brought them them food. They also got to make use of the luxuries created by beta makes.

The above leads me to believe that marriage was invented by women and beta males, at the expense of alpha males.

Sound off in the comments and school me please.