To both, the women of our modern feminist era are desperate to commit for life and honor traditional marriage vows, if only there were men fit to marry. . . .
As similar as the two sides are in assuring us that the horde of mothers who reject marriage aren’t really rejecting marriage, there are subtle differences in their arguments. . . .
While feminists celebrate the radical way we have reordered marriage and our society to make the explosion in unwed motherhood happen, family values leaders simply deny such a change occurred in the first place. . . .
What neither the feminists nor the family values proponents are willing to address is that the decision to move from a marriage based family structure was made in the US several decades ago. Prior to the 1960s unwed mothers could not count on child support or welfare. Most states had a patchwork of bastardy laws in place, but even here the laws varied and there was a clear stigma on illegitimacy.