by Martha Albertson Fineman

About the author: Martha Albertson Fineman is Maurice T. Moore Professor of Law at Columbia University and author of The Illusion of Equality: The Rhetoric and Reality of Divorce Reform.

Marriage stands condemned as a failed social institution in the eyes of many at the end of the 20th century. Increasingly, people are marrying later in life, while others choose not to marry at all. Meanwhile, the divorce rate hovers near 50 percent for all new marriages. Out-of-wedlock motherhood is on the rise, particularly among the well-educated, according to 1990 census data summarized by Amaru Bachu in the journal Current Population Reports. Furthermore, the historical assumption that the private, marital-based (or nuclear) family unit can comfortably accept primary responsibility for the care of children and other family members seems increasingly...