>When women are empowered and have agency, they delay having children and have less children.
Are those the only factors that are affecting the decision?
Are they even the main factors?
Are those the only factors that are affecting the decision?
Are they even the main factors?
https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#what-explains-the-... ("Our World in Data: What explains the declining fertility rate?")
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/the-exp... ("57% of adults under 50 who say they’re unlikely to ever have kids say a major reason is they just don’t want to; 31% of those ages 50 and older without kids cite this as a reason they never had them")
https://www.axios.com/2024/07/25/adults-no-children-why-pew-... ("Why more U.S. adults are choosing not to have kids: 64% of young women say they just don't want children, compared to 50% of men.")
https://www.rfa.org/english/news/china/population-policies-0... ("Chinese women unimpressed by government's plan to make more babies")
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jan/20/the-last-gener... ("‘The last generation’: the young Chinese people vowing not to have children")
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/south-koreas-fert... ("South Korea's fertility rate, already the world's lowest, continued its dramatic decline in 2023, as women concerned about their career advancement and the financial cost of raising children decided to delay childbirth or to not have babies.")
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2024-08-07/latin-... | http://archive.today/RFf3U ("Bloomberg: The Age of the Big Latin American Family Is Over")
> Some of the reasons for this trend in Latin America are similar to those elsewhere: There is less social pressure for women to have babies at a young age. Contraception is more accepted and more available. People are living longer and spending more time in school before entering the workforce. Couples tend to wait until achieving a certain standard of living before considering children.
> But there are also reasons specific to Latin America. Simone Cecchini, director of the demographic center at the UN’s Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean, says the region has made considerable progress in reducing the number of teenage pregnancies. On the other hand, he notes, its recurrent macroeconomic crises and financial uncertainties tend to discourage people’s interest in becoming parents.
> In 1950, Latin America’s fertility rates were similar to Africa’s. By the end of this century, he says, they will match Europe’s. Demographically speaking, “this is a very significant and rapid change.”
I also highly recommend the book "Empty Planet: The Shock of Global Population Decline" on this topic.
https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/545397/empty-planet...
Also note that according to Pew, the reasoning does not differ across gender: "For the most part, the experiences of adults without children and the reasons they give for not having them don’t vary much by gender. This is the case across both age groups."
So that diminishes the claim that "When women are empowered and have agency, they delay having children and have less children." as it is both men and women choosing this.
Hence my questioning that Women empowerment is the main driver.
It appears to me that the main driver is societal wealth, societal cost and also a desire to focus on the self.
>They want to focus on other things, such as their career or interests (44% vs. 21%)
>They can’t afford to raise a child (36% vs. 12%)
Korea had a sudden birth rate drop after running an ad campaign about how children are a burden. https://www.prb.org/resources/did-south-koreas-population-po...
We in the west have had a massive change in our values and society since the last baby boom. We had the 60's where we rejected alot of the traditional values and then up through the 80's we had "greed is good" and a large focus on the self rather than society as a whole.
We also spread these views and cultural outlook wildly via Hollywood.
Are we sure this had had no impact?