The implication was that selfish me-first feminists (if they were affluent white women) or feckless social parasites (if they were low-income women of color) were putting their own interests above their children’s. Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s widely reprinted study The Negro Family: The Case for National Action painted a picture of single motherhood as the primary instigator of inner-city and especially African-American criminality, illiteracy, and drug use.
在一阵手足无措后，单身母亲被当作美国核心价值观的末日先兆扔进了垃圾桶（当时的单身父亲却没有经历同样的厄运）。其中暗藏的潜台词是惟我独尊的自私的女权主义者（如果她们是富裕的白人女性）或无能的社会寄生虫（如果她们是低收入的有色族裔妇女）将自己的利益凌驾于孩子的利益之上。丹尼尔·帕特里克·莫尼汉的论文黑人家庭：国家行动案例被媒体疯狂转载，他在这篇文章中把单身母亲描绘成导致中心城区、特别是非洲裔美国人犯罪、目不识丁和吸毒的主要因素。