lower-status husband

Interesting I have seen research that suggests a major difference in perceptions between men and women. Men tend to assess the average woman as, well, average in overall attractiveness. Women tend to assess about 80% of men as below average. So in a monogamous society women tend to think they have settled too low.

Such a gap in perceptions would make sense in a polygamous society where a few men at the top have most of the women - so the women marry up, and end up perceiving this as normal. From my reading, most hunter gatherer societies were polygamous.