If you go further back (50s - 60s), it was very common for a household to survive on a single income. Even 30-40 years ago when I grew up, our family of 6 lived off a single income from a non-college graduate.
That's very hard to do now, except for certain fields like tech.
That's pretty much the exact premise of the OP. Specifically, the growth in labor force/prevalence of dual income families was driven by the increase in costs, not the other way around.
If you go further back (50s - 60s), it was very common for a household to survive on a single income. Even 30-40 years ago when I grew up, our family of 6 lived off a single income from a non-college graduate.
That's very hard to do now, except for certain fields like tech.