adopting in France

three single women who wanted to adopt a child, got 99% of the way through French admin in their local area before the last guy said no because there would be a 'lack of a father figure in the child's life'. which is stupid, as lots people who have kids nowadays are not married/together, and sometimes not even fit to be parents. where is gets weirder is that one of these women successfully adopted a girl a few years back, and apart from now having a daughter, nothing has changed in her life: same place, same job, same status, etc. some things just don't make sense...