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Man, the graph has been going down steadily for 200 years barring the post war bump.
Can you guess what it has gone down in inversed tandem with? It is not female labour participation.
The same thing goes for Japan. The fertility collapse predates liberalisation and workforce participation.
Also, why did Swedens ferility rate recover in the late 80s/90s and again in the 10s? I assure you that women didn't get less liberalised or educated, and it's not because of immigration either.
The status of women was advancing all throughout the 19th century in the US plus there are other factors involved.
No it doesn't, go look at the graph. There's a brief fall due to the chaos of the Meiji Restoration then fertility goes back up. A fall with the Great Depression and WW2, as you (or at least I) would expect. Then it nose-dives after equality of the sexes is introduced. Same story in South Korea - static for decades under Japanese rule, then legal equality of the sexes, then straight down as the effects of that decision become clear. At the same time of course, South Korea is urbanizing. But it's not like urbanization started in 1950, that there was no urbanization from 1900-1950.
At no point did I say that 100% of fertility was determined by female empowerment. There are other factors involved, the state of the economy, politics, cultural quirks and so on. What I am saying is that female empowerment lowers fertility. Speaking broadly, Sweden has empowered women and low, sub-replacement fertility, it's not a hole in my argument.
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