Bureaugamy

In 1999 Lionel Tiger (born 5 Feb 1937 Montreal, Quebec, Professor of Anthropology, Rutgers University) coined the word “bureaugamy” to refer to the relationship between officially impoverished mothers of illegitimate children and the government.

The resources that husbands traditionally have been able to contribute to reproduction and marriage -- financial support, protection, and socialization of their children -- have been supplanted, and sometimes replaced, by what Tiger terms government "bureaugamy" (women's dependency on the government, or the "government-as-husband").

While medical reproductive technology has had the effect of marginalizing men reproductively, the state's "bureaugamy" has marginalized the importance of men's marital and parental contributions. Women are often encouraged to live independently (as evidenced by the feminist slogan: "A woman needs a man about as much as fish needs a bicycle"). The bureaugamy supports the superfluousness of husbands by assuring a woman that it will provide what historically a husband did -- with government help she can live independently and generally without fear of hunger, lack of shelter, attack, or lack of socialization and education of her children.

Book:
Tiger, Lionel (1999). The Decline Of Males (sometimes subtitled: The First Look at an Unexpected New World for Men and Women)
http://www.amazon.com/The-Decline-Males-Lionel-Tiger/dp/1582380147
Book Review:
http://www.drmillslmu.com/publications/tiger-review.htm