Interesting, but that’s not where I was going with that. Even if we accepted that the purpose of life is to create more life without consideration of what kind of circumstances this new life will have, marriage, as defined by most religions has no place in the discussion. It is a social construct/contract. One that historically passes ownership of women from her father to a husband. It has nothing to do with the purpose of life unless you consider the purpose of life to subjugate and control women. It won’t ever matter how pretty you dress it up and how much you spend on the party after and the honeymoon, it’s still life under the boot of someone else and the erasure of your self.

As far as having children goes, again, as long as you are the primary caretaker with little back up or relief (which few of us ever get) your life is limited around their care as long as they need that care. As long as men fall into spasms of apoplexy over having to change a diaper and take care of the child they helped create with equal "hands on", then the woman is going to be stuck doing it all while her life slips away from her. We are not breeding machines with no thought to our potential or ourselves other than procreation. We are human beings with the full compliment of hopes and desires that go along with the human condition.

Women who want to have children would be better off pairing with other women who desire the same to raise those children. At least then, they could trade off and she could get some time back instead of losing her youth and vitality begging some man to step up and do his fair share who never will, while she slowly dies of loneliness, isolation, and wasted potential. Such arrangements work just fine for many other species.