My husband and I have one little girl and we are expecting our second child at the end of this year, six weeks before our third wedding anniversary. We represent a growing minority among Generation Z. In 1965, five in six adults between the ages of eighteen and thirty-four were, or had been, married. Since 1970, however, the marriage rate has fallen by sixty percent. Today, approximately one-third of Gen Z is on track never to marry, with many preferring to remain in unstable cohabitating arrangements.

In the past few years, there’s been a discussion about whether, and how much, mothers of young children should work outside the home. There are many who argue that women’s professional ambitions should shrink, or at the very least wait a few years, when they start having children.

One ideology that champions stay-at-home motherhood is the so-called “anti-feminist” school of thought, espoused by many socially conservative journalists, academics, and social scientists. And there are many others who rely on data and statistics to prove that the superior choice for a family is to commit to living on one income and that one parent (typically and for many valid reasons, the mother) should agree to forego a career indefinitely while raising children.