Happy International Women’s Day

Welcome to March 8th, otherwise known as International Women’s Day (a.k.a. International Working Women’s Day). In honor of estrogen, I thought I’d direct your attention to “The Motherhood Experiment,” an oh so interesting New York Times Magazine piece by journalist Sharon Lerner on how family-friendly workplace policies correlate to population growth (or lack thereof) around the world.

This is not a pro- or anti-procreation piece. Nor is it an attempt to fan the flames of the mommy wars. It’s simply meant to point out that workplace policies may be affecting population growth, as women in the world’s wealthier nations seriously weigh how breeding might impact their careers and vice versa. I don’t know about you, but this is not something my mother mulled over before having my sister and me. But it’s certainly something I’ve weighed over the years.

But enough about me. Check out this kickass excerpt:

To the dismay of pundits and politicians alike, women in industrialized countries and elsewhere have been bearing fewer and fewer children. More than 90 states have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, and the trend, which began in the early 1960s, is already leading to fewer workers, graying populations and dire predictions about vanishing peoples. While scholars blame several phenomena, including greater access to birth control, later marriage and a drop in what one researcher calls “hopefulness about the future,” many researchers agree that at least part of the problem is due to the particular burdens women face in the work force. If becoming a mother requires a woman to take a huge financial and professional hit, the thinking goes, she will be far less likely do it.

Could it be, then, that easing a woman’s ability to hold a job and raise children simultaneously will nudge her toward having a bigger family? At least 45 countries in Europe and Asia are betting on it, having instituted government programs to maintain or raise their fertility rates. Contrary to the rhetoric of many family-values champions, their example suggests that the promotion of larger families and the promotion of women’s careers may go hand in hand.

Read the rest here. And if you want to add your two cents to the discussion, comment away.

6 comments March 8th, 2007