Here is my personal view about this issue:
(1) I think there is nothing wrong for men to lose his virginity unlike women. Many women tell me that unlike men, they don't need sex. They even argue that the fact that men have to pay for sex is a proof of this. If that is the case, why would women still need to lose their virginities so as to enjoy sex? After all, they don't need sex as much as men do.
(2) During our grandparents and parents' times, it is less common for women to engage in premarital sex. But the media propagated the notion of premarital sex somewhere along the timeline and many impressionable girls thought that is was thus acceptable to be having premarital sex with the guys they love. It eventually became what appeared to be "the norm". People now even think that in this 21st century, if you are not engaged in premarital sex, there is something weird about the girl. In Japan, the girls believed that they themselves are not attractive if they do not have premarital sex.
(3) "Because everyone is doing it so it is acceptable" idea is still not a good argument for having sex, in my opinion.
"I love the guy so it is acceptable to give him my virginity to him even though we are not married" is not acceptable a reason to me.
Women will always remember the guy whom they lost their virginities to, not the third man who shagged her.
Many women whom I talked to still remember the romance with the man whom they gave their virginities to.
Firstly when women said that they don't need sex, it is only a self consolation because no one is interested in having sex with them. Either that or they have never got an orgasm before. My ex for instance loved sex so much that she was the initiator most of the time. You may have been bought by the Singapore Serials that the females are the passive and unwilling partner. The fact is that if the man trigger enough, the woman will go for anything because she enjoyed it.
Secondly, less common in the past does not mean the cases were lesser. They simply put in more effort and doing a better job to hide what they were doing. Imagine that the movies in the 70s depict a pregnancy after spending a night together doing nothing, its like babies are result of pollenation by wind. If anything that could result in less cases in the past, pregnancy would be the only deterant, not moral values.
Thirdly, the "everyone is doing it" excuse is just to hide what they wanted deep within. They simply do not want to be accountable for their action. Like Ted Bundy said," porn made me kill all those women." Is porn really responsible for it, many read porn and yet they never kill.
Women are not the only one who remember their first love, I still remember mine including most of the passionate sessions (nope, not sharing them here), I mean even if you have so many (like 125 cases), you will still remember the first.