That a nice idea, but I'm not sure those expectations are equally as strong and respected in all segments of society. Those who study poverty often find that it's the women who are the more stable ones holding things together while the men when they have problems with one of their women (wife, sister, mother, whoever they're staying with at the time) just take off and go to another until the stuff blows over.
In this case I think sacrifice is used in a sense to mean you can't have everything you want so you have to choose, and in a marriage you have to compromise when your wants conflict. Most responsibilities require some sort of sacrifice, and about the only time we don't feel it is when whatever goal we're working toward is so valuable to us that we only see the goal and don't stop to think about what we can't have along with the goal.