Today there are many threats to marriage and the family; and everyone seems to have an opinion on how to create it; fix it; repair or dissolve it. We no longer look at marriage with dreamy visions of a spouse and the endless generosity of life and family before us. It seems like “we” want many of the benefits that a marriage brings without making the commitment. In the 1700s, marriage was a commitment between families, which was taken seriously. There were marriage bonds with money paid and then the court order for the marriage; and in other colonies this time-honored process may have 17 distinct steps. http://www.austincc.edu/jdikes/Marriage%20Ways%20ALL.pdf Since Dan Quayle used the television character "Murphy Brown" in his June 1992 speech as "encouraging family disintegration," the government has continued to make “status and family structure….major themes of political rhetoric and government policy” (Page 518). Quayle also noted that “marriage is probably the best anti-poverty program of all” (American Vision and Values, page 179). Here is a politician who believes that the country needed better models and a return to the values ​​on which it was founded. Dafoe Whitehead suggests that these arguments are perceived as an attack on single mothers; rejection” (American Vision and Values, page 182). Rather than attacking a single family structure – single mothers, we consider the results produced by non-traditional structures. Kay Hymowitz believes that “we are becoming a nation of separate and unequal families that threatens to endure in the near future” (page 560). This will have consequences for every aspect of our society. Marriage, before children, was the established status quo for the pro-family era of the 1950s. At that time, divorce and illegitimacy were half the rate today, marriage was universally praised, and the family was hailed as the most basic institution. The 1960s brought disruptive social and cultural forces. The divorce rate has increased dramatically and the illegitimacy rate has increased by 22%. In the 1970s we see that women could afford a family without a spouse. It seems that the choice to work equally with men has devalued the role of housewife of previous decades (Graglia, Carolyn Domestic Tranquility Page 540). These choices were centered on career goals and achieving motherhood; without truly addressing the needs of the family and children. Yet many single mothers hover around the poverty line – not as glamorous as “Murphy Brown” made it seem.