> We need fathers to protect and provide.

Protect from what? Themselves and other men? Why do they have to provide while women are being made helpless and dependent?

> Things worked this way for thousands upon thousands of years and led to our species being amazingly resilient

It led to high domestic violence against women. Even normalized one where being the wife was considered just being a man. These are very much correlated with lack of opportunities for women to get earn and live independently. Too many men were using the "protection" as an excuse for being the primary danger in their women's lives.