I don't remember saying that but it sounds like something I would say / something that I would have some level of agreement with if someone else said it.
Let's work through your hypothetical. The year is 1994 (30 years ago) and we're in the United States. There's a 30 year old woman, meaning she was born in 1964. A 1964 birth is someone born at the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation and right at the cusp of Generation X (1965-1980 birth years). In this hypothetical, I'm going to make the woman childless. In 1994, median age at first marriage was about 4 years younger for women than it is now. The median 1st marriage woman was getting married around age 24-25, as compared to 28-29 now.
A 30 year old woman in 1994 who found herself single would have been less common, since the median woman in 1994 was getting married at 24-25. A 30 year old unmarried woman in 1994 would have likely lived in a big city and been a careerist if she were never married OR she got married at 24-25 and got divorced within 3-5 years without having children.
If a 30 year old woman was single in 1994 USA, she was probably going to bars 1-3 nights per week to try to meet men if she wanted to date. This means she needs to have enough single friends/acquaintances to accompany her out to bars 1-3 nights per week. That alone is a challenge for women both in 2024 and 1994. But let's say she's able to do that. Let's say she's able to get approached by 5 men per night out. That's somewhat of a generous assumption for a 30 year old in 1994, but not too unrealistic. Let's say she also gets some non-bar approaches too. Between her non-bar and bar approaches, she might get approached by 30-60 men per month. That's not bad but it's nothing compared to women from the mid-2000s to present. A 30 year old single woman in 2024 would have 300+ right swipes on swipe apps in a month + social media DMs + real life approaches. Whereas 1994 woman has 30-60 men per month a good deal of effort in real effort, 2024 woman has close to 500 male suitors per month with less effort than the 1994 woman made.
Most Millennial/Gen Z females have upped their quantity of suitors by a big factor (10x +) as compared to their Boomer/Gen X equivalents at a similar age.
In the 19th and for most of the 20th Century, there were cultural and logistical factors that regulated the sexual marketplace to an extent. While there was no assigning, the sexual marketplace functioned somewhat efficiently. Subpar females (2-4s) were more likely to pair off with subpar males (2-4s).
Incel status was far less common in the time up until the earliest Millennials reached adulthood circa 2000. The case of incel killer George Sodini (born 1960) was considered unusual in his era. Neil Strauss (born 1969) got famous for getting into PUA circles in the early 2000s. Strauss was a 1990s incel/borderline incel because of his 5'6" height and balding. Even though Strauss had an Ivy League bachelor's degree and was a prominent music journalist at the time, that was not enough status and money to offset his looks deficiencies. Incels in the Baby Boomer and Generation X generations were far less common than what's happened with Gen Y/Millennials and Generation Z who have had sexual marketplaces with less regulation and more technology.
Boomer and Generation X women had much less abundance and were more inclined to be loyal to a man because of having fewer options. As a result, there are plenty of age 60+ men today that have had girlfriend/wives that would have been incels had they been born in the 1980s-1990s instead of being born in the late 1940s to mid 1960s.
In simpler terms, the following statement is true for a lot of younger adults today.
Your mom and your dad would not have been a longer term couple had swipe apps or social media existed when your mom and your dad were under age 35.
