Couldn't agree more with all of this Laetitia. (Except China used to be a more gender equal country than a lot of places... Mao had women holding up half the sky, remember?) But it does seem tragically comic that all these men in power around the world can't figure out women enough to understand what they need to have the babies the majority of them say they want. And that they can natalist-policy all they want, but women are getting pretty good at voting with their wombs. Everywhere.
Here's a related piece I wrote in FORBES called The Cost of Underestimating Women: No Babies
I would be curious to hear your thoughts on the Finnish mystery. Apparently, they (Finland) do more than many other countries to support mothers in the workforce. Yet, the fertility rate is also sharply declining. We vote with our wombs, that's true, to oppose sexist systems that demand too many sacrifices from us (financially and in terms of freedom). But perhaps we collectively have less and less desire to have children?
Yes, Finland rather does argue with our feminist convictions doesn't it? But will be interviewing Anna Rotkirch on my podcast to learn more about the context. There is definitely a sub-group not having kids because of the impending climate catastrophe, and I imagine Finns are rather more convinced of this than many.
On the other hand, the other piece that really shocked me last week was this one (below) in the FT about gender divergences in progressiveness between young men and women. It's based on research by co-Substacker @Alice Evans and would go down an entirely different explanation. If child-bearing men and women are splitting across value systems, this would be a huge drag on fertility rates. Who would want to co-parent with a regressive reactionary?
I've been saying for a long time that we should get better at engaging men of all ages in these conversations - starting early.
Even if Macron discovers the issue today, the decrease starts ten years ago. I will also bet on the consequence of an internal war against middle class and poors. Macron went a step further than the former presidents
Couldn't agree more with all of this Laetitia. (Except China used to be a more gender equal country than a lot of places... Mao had women holding up half the sky, remember?) But it does seem tragically comic that all these men in power around the world can't figure out women enough to understand what they need to have the babies the majority of them say they want. And that they can natalist-policy all they want, but women are getting pretty good at voting with their wombs. Everywhere.
Here's a related piece I wrote in FORBES called The Cost of Underestimating Women: No Babies
https://www.forbes.com/sites/avivahwittenbergcox/2019/11/24/the-cost-of-under-estimating-the-rise-of-women-no-babies/
Thank you, Avivah, great article in Forbes!
I would be curious to hear your thoughts on the Finnish mystery. Apparently, they (Finland) do more than many other countries to support mothers in the workforce. Yet, the fertility rate is also sharply declining. We vote with our wombs, that's true, to oppose sexist systems that demand too many sacrifices from us (financially and in terms of freedom). But perhaps we collectively have less and less desire to have children?
Yes, Finland rather does argue with our feminist convictions doesn't it? But will be interviewing Anna Rotkirch on my podcast to learn more about the context. There is definitely a sub-group not having kids because of the impending climate catastrophe, and I imagine Finns are rather more convinced of this than many.
On the other hand, the other piece that really shocked me last week was this one (below) in the FT about gender divergences in progressiveness between young men and women. It's based on research by co-Substacker @Alice Evans and would go down an entirely different explanation. If child-bearing men and women are splitting across value systems, this would be a huge drag on fertility rates. Who would want to co-parent with a regressive reactionary?
I've been saying for a long time that we should get better at engaging men of all ages in these conversations - starting early.
https://www.ft.com/content/29fd9b5c-2f35-41bf-9d4c-994db4e12998?desktop=true&segmentId=7c8f09b9-9b61-4fbb-9430-9208a9e233c8#myft:notification:daily-email:content
Even if Macron discovers the issue today, the decrease starts ten years ago. I will also bet on the consequence of an internal war against middle class and poors. Macron went a step further than the former presidents