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Notes -
Possible explanations:
(1) It's the patriarchy, my friend. Older males hogged all the nubile women for themselves, and they preferred to hand over their marriageable daughters to men of similar status to themselves. Dowries and bride prices meant that only the successful families could afford to have their daughters married off, and this left a lot of young men stranded since they didn't have resources to marry.
That's slightly tongue-in-cheek, but Irish history pre- and post-Famine show huge changes in marriage; before that, marriages happened young because you could always further sub-divide that plot of land, give some to a son, he grew potatoes - the wonder crop - on it and that fed a family. Post-Famine, marriages took place at older ages, inheriting land and property became concentrated around the eldest son, the eldest daughter might get married or be consigned to the role of care-taker for the aging parents in the family home. Wars and famines do make huge cultural changes.
(2) It's the patriarchy, two: polygamy, where men married more than one bride (e.g. sisters married off to one man, cousins marrying cousins, as in this movie about a 15th century Hindu devotee who marries his two cousins). Also, have you seen how the Roman upper classes married and divorced multiple times for political alliances, for one example?
(3) Widowers. Women die in childbirth and post-puerperal. A man left with a child or children will probably remarry quickly, and men can have several wives over their lifespan in this manner.
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