“The personal is political” was the slogan of choice adopted by many second-wave feminists of the 1960s and 70s. Referring to the ways in which gender inequalities influence women’s personal lives, the slogan sought to broaden society’s understanding of what is considered “political”. This allowed feminists to bring matters that had formerly been relegated to the domestic or “private” sphere into the public eye.
One of these issues was and still remains women’s bodily autonomy, as demonstrated by the 2022 US Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark case granting American women access to abortion. Without the freedom to make their own reproductive decisions, whether that be through access to contraceptives, abortion, or – might I add – voluntary sterilization, women clearly lack agency over their lives in a way that men do not.
However, legal barriers notwithstanding, women’s choice of whether or not to have children is still largely shaped by socioeconomic inequalities. Yet, many analysts continue to dismiss these or divert attention away from them when discussing declining birth rates in the developed world. For example, although many have blamed women’s “career ambition” for falling population rates, this generally overlooks other, more relevant explanations.
The Myth of The “Career Woman”
Many have a tendency to blame the fall in the birth rate in the developed world on “career women”. While there is no doubt that as women have increasingly pursued higher education and joined the workforce since the end of World War II, they have shifted part of their focus in life to employment. However, career rarely registers as one of the primary reasons why childless people, especially women, decide not to have children.
Instead, for those who express an interest in having children, surveys consistently rank financial and job insecurity, as well as medical reasons, lack of partner, and age, as the key reasons individuals choose to have fewer children or to forgo them altogether. In fact, one study at Ohio State University in the US found that young Americans’ desire for children relative to that of past generations hasn’t changed.
Career rarely registers as one of the primary reasons why childless people, especially women, decide not to have children.
Yet, emphasizing the “career woman” or women’s choice of their careers over children – placing the blame at the individual level – masks the fact that more and more women have little choice in actuality but to prioritize their careers. As author of the same study at Ohio State University Sarah Hayford points out, young Americans are increasingly worried about their ability to provide for potential children, given the high cost of education, healthcare, and childcare in the country. This concern is mirrored by young people in European countries, even those that provide for more generous welfare programs.
Long gone are the days where a husband’s sole income could cover the financial needs of both his wife and children. The recent return of the idealized stay-at-home mom epitomizes the nostalgia for this era that, in my opinion, is born out of a frustration with imposed “hustle culture”. Yet, the pitfalls of complete financial dependence on one’s male partner should not be forgotten.
How Motherhood Exacerbates Gender Inequalities
This emphasis on individual choice brushes over the gender inequalities in the labor market that drive some women to, at the very least, delay their decision to have children, sometimes until they are no longer able to. Such inequalities are made most apparent through the gender pay gap: women are paid approximately 20% less than men globally, with a difference of about 18% in the US and 12% in the EU.
While there is a pay gap between male and female workers between the ages of 25 to 34 in the US – demonstrating that the lack of wage parity cannot be explained by motherhood alone – this gap widens considerably as female workers start having children. As one study found, mothers are more likely to suffer from “lower perceived competence and commitment, higher professional expectations, lower likelihood of hiring and promotion, and lower recommended salaries.”
Women are paid approximately 20% less than men globally, with a difference of about 18% in the US and 12% in the EU.
Concretely, this translates not only to lower salaries for mothers as compared to their non-mother and male counterparts, but to higher discrimination in both the finding and retention of employment, a cost that is commonly referred to as the “motherhood penalty”. Furthermore, while many attribute this to mothers’ tendency to work part-time, this argument ignores the fact that women are more likely than men to be employed in low-skilled, low-paid work to begin with.
What this means is that women in heterosexual couples are more likely to give up their jobs when they become pregnant, as they typically earn less than their male partners. In this sense, the “motherhood penalty” doesn’t simply introduce new forms of gender inequality, it exacerbates existing ones. In fact, what is a penalty for mothers can even be a benefit for fathers: referred to as the “fatherhood bonus”, a number of studies have found that men with children are more likely to earn higher wages than both women and childless men. Whereas working fathers are typically seen as “good providers”, working mothers are often perceived as unable to fulfill their domestic duties.
The Non-Choice that Many Women Face
While it is unlikely that a majority of women abandon the idea of motherhood for these reasons alone, they do point to the greater economic difficulties facing women should they decide to have children, especially for those without a partner. Set against a backdrop of wider financial insecurity, it is therefore unsurprising that more women are beginning to question whether children are actually “worth it”.
Explaining the fall in the birth rate in the developed world by the “career woman” is not only incorrect, but it also masks the complexities of what is, at least in the financial sense, still very much a trade-off between career and children that women face while men do not. This is especially true when considering the societal expectations placed on mothers that fathers are often exempt from.
Set against a backdrop of wider financial insecurity, it is unsurprising that more women are beginning to question whether children are actually “worth it”.
Indeed, the ideal of the woman who “has it all” – a husband, children, and a career – comes across in this light as a means of getting women to willingly accept the double burden of childcare and employment, often under the guise of “empowerment”, while excusing their male partners of their fair share of domestic duties.
The myth of the “career woman” is also a subtle reminder that, in the ever-encroaching logic of capitalism, if women are not having children – and thus indirectly contributing to the workforce – they must want to devote their lives to work themselves (hobbies anyone?). The increasing “panic” over falling birthrates in the developed world clearly stems from economic anxiety – as well as perhaps a fear of childless women – more than anything else.