It's all of those, right?
In the sense that most mothers or wives could always have one more child, yes. But in terms of what has changed recently, no. Mothers in America have more children today than mothers did in the 1990s. There are just fewer of them, because there are fewer young people coupling up and marrying.
Allow women to delay their non-military national service until they're 25, and wave it if they have children by then
As a 'stick' that could well work. Deferments for getting drafted to Vietnam did in fact increase fertility by driving up the number of first births. Then when Nixon removed the exemption they went down again.
Crowstep
13hr ago
Conscripting women to die in wars is gonna be a hard sell, but I can easily imagine a western government conscripting women for the kind of non-military national service that Israel does for its Orthodox women. The young men go to learn and fight wars, while the young women go and work in hospitals and care homes. They could even frame it as feminist!
Of course, conscripting women for motherhood is gonna be tough, given that the birth rate decline is being caused by less coupling, and not by mothers having fewer children. You would also need to conscript men for fatherhood. Basically, you'd need forced marriages, organised by the state.
Nope. Mothers in America have more children today than they did 30 years ago. But coupling (and therefore fertility) has been falling worldwide, driving down fertility.
More options
Context Copy link