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RICHMOND -- Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell moved Monday to distance himself from aspects of a 20-year-old academic paper in which he described the trends of working women and feminism as "detrimental to the family" and argued that public policy should favor married couples over "cohabitators, homosexuals and fornicators."

McDonnell, the former attorney general, also criticized Democratic rival Creigh Deeds for attempting to score political points with the document, which was revealed Sunday by The Washington Post. Deeds' campaign and Democrats argued that the paper, which McDonnell wrote for a graduate thesis, shows that McDonnell's politics are rooted in a social agenda that is out of step with the majority of Virginia's voters.

McDonnell said the paper was "an academic exercise" and that voters should judge him on his complete record, including 14 years of service in the House of Delegates and more than three years as attorney general. He insisted that issues such as jobs, the economy and transportation funding will matter far more to voters than the candidates' views on social issues.

"I have great confidence that the citizens of Virginia will judge me on my 18-year record as a legislator and attorney general and the specific plans I've laid out for our future, and not on a decades-old academic paper that I wrote as a student in the Reagan era," McDonnell said in a lengthy conference call with reporters.

Deeds campaign adviser Mo Elleithee said the thesis serves as a foundation of McDonnell's politics and is relevant to the campaign.

"He wrote a thesis laying out a blueprint for exactly how he was going to allow it to influence his legislative record and he spent the next 20 years actually legislating that way," Elleithee said.

McDonnell submitted the paper in 1989, when he was a 34-year-old master's and law degree candidate at Regent University -- then known as CBN University -- the Virginia Beach school founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson. McDonnell titled his 93-page thesis "The Republican Party's Vision for the Family: The Compelling Issue of The Decade."

The paper analyzed the impact of three decades of federal policies and court rulings on traditional families and laid out 15 "specific family policy proposals" that Republicans should champion. The list includes measures McDonnell pursued as a state legislator, such as strong anti-abortion laws, welfare reform, repealing the inheritance tax on large estates and school vouchers. McDonnell also wrote that the GOP should "fight any attempts to redefine family by allowing special rights for homosexuals or single-parent unwed mothers."

In the paper, McDonnell questioned government policies that usurped parental authority and criticized federal spending for child care programs.

"Further expenditures would be used to subsidize a dynamic new trend of working women and feminists that is ultimately detrimental to the family by entrenching a status-quo on non-parental primary nurture of children," McDonnell wrote.

McDonnell said his views about working women have evolved and that his life and record reflect that change. Women made up half of his senior staff in the attorney general's office, he said. His wife, Maureen, has worked outside the home, and he has encouraged his daughters to pursue master's degrees to expand their career opportunities. McDonnell, who has five children, also noted that his oldest daughter, Jeanine, has served in the Army in Iraq.

"I strongly support women in the military and women in the workplace and for my opponent to suggest otherwise is insulting to me and my family," McDonnell said.

McDonnell also wrote in his thesis that government policies "should statutorily and procedurally prefer married couples over cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators."

"If the government at all levels has a duty to uphold the family, then it follows that it has the authority to legitimately discriminate in support of this goal," he wrote.

McDonnell said Monday that his views have changed and that, "I don't think that government's got any business when it comes to cohabitation or any living arrangements whatsoever."

McDonnell supported a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages, but said that his hiring policies as attorney general did not discriminate based on race, gender or sexual orientation.

Deeds' campaign, which trails in the polls, tried to capitalize on the McDonnell paper Monday. In a fundraising appeal, campaign manager Joe Abbey said the Republican has "an intolerant social agenda that will take Virginia backward." Gov. Tim Kaine also cited the thesis in a fundraising e-mail sent from his political action committee, Moving Virginia Forward.

McDonnell said voters are more interested in economic issues and will choose the candidate with the best plan "to promote jobs, opportunity and all the infrastructure that's needed to support it."