10. Women became aware of their needs, priorities, preferences, wishes and, in general, of their proper emotions. They cast off emotions and thought patterns inculcated in them by patriarchal societies and cultures and sustained through peer pressure.

11. The roles and traditional functions of the family were gradually eroded and transferred to other social agents. Even functions such as emotional support, psychosexual interactions, and child rearing are often relegated to outside "subcontractors".

Emptied of these functions and of inter-generational interactions, the nuclear family was reduced to a dysfunctional shell, a hub of rudimentary communication between its remaining members, a dilapidated version of its former self.

The traditional roles of women and their alleged character, propensities, and inclinations were no longer useful in this new environment. This led women to search for a new definition, to find a new niche. They were literally driven out of their homes by its functional disappearance.

12. In parallel, modern medicine increased women's life expectancy, prolonged their child bearing years, improved their health dramatically, and preserved their beauty through a myriad newfangled techniques. This gave women a new lease on life.

In this new world, women are far less likely to die at childbirth or to look decrepit at 30 years of age. They are able to time their decision to bring a child to the world, or to refrain from doing so passively or actively (by having an abortion).

Women's growing control over their body - which has been objectified, reviled and admired for millennia by men - is arguably one of the most striking features of the feminine revolution. It allows women to rid themselves of deeply embedded masculine values, views and prejudices concerning their physique and their sexuality.

13. Finally, the legal system and other social and economic structures adapted themselves to reflect many of the abovementioned sea changes. Being inertial and cumbersome, they reacted slowly, partially and gradually. Still, they did react. Any comparison between the situation just twenty years ago and today is likely to reveal substantial differences.

But this revolution is only a segment of a much larger one.

In the past, the axes with which we opened our discussion were closely and seemingly inextricably intertwined. The Economic, the Social and the Emotional (the axis invested in the preservation of societal mores and ideologies) formed one amalgam - and the Private, the Familial and the Utilitarian-Rational constituted another.

Thus, society encouraged people to get married because it was emotionally committed to a societal-economic ideology which infused the family with sanctity, an historical mission and grandeur.

Notwithstanding social views of the family, the majority of men and women got married out of a cold pecuniary calculation that regarded the family as a functioning economic unit, within which the individual effectively transacts. Forming families was the most efficient way known to generate wealth, accumulate it and transfer it across time and space to future generations.

These traditional confluences of axes were diametrically reversed in the last few decades. The Social and Economic axes together with the Utilitarian (Rational) axis and the Emotional axis are now aligned with the Private and Familial axes.

Put simply, nowadays society encourages people to get married because it wishes to maximize their economic output. But most people do not see it this way. They regard the family as a safe emotional haven.

The distinction between past and present may be subtle but it is by no means trivial. In the past, people used to express emotions in formulaic, socially dictated ways, wearing their beliefs and ideologies on their sleeves as it were. The family was one of these modes of expression. But really, it served as a mere economic unit, devoid of any emotional involvement and content.

Today, people are looking to the family for emotional sustenance (romantic love, companionship) and not as an instrument to enhance their social and economic standing. Creating a family is no longer the way to maximize utility.

But these new expectations have destabilized the family. Both men and women seek emotional comfort and true companionships within it and when they fail to find it, use their newfound self-sufficiency and freedoms and divorce.