Can a divorced woman get everything?

I was at the Barber Shop yesterday and they were talking about a man who worked and built a nice upstairs and downstairs house from scratch and his wife divorced him and she got the house and the kids. Can someone explain to me how this works? I personally think that that is horrible, knowing that a man could build a house from the dirt, brick by brick and a woman could just take that because of a divorce. I am ignorant to how the law works so could someone explain that part to me?