Fertility rate: what women who had five or more kids want you to know.
SlateCatherine Ruth Pakaluk, a Harvard Ph.D.–holding economist at the Catholic University of America, in Washington, has eight children. By picking college-educated women, she writes, “I could get a cleaner sense of the role of kids in subjects’ descriptions of self-identity, marital quality, and life satisfaction without confounding variables from poverty and financial worry, since college education makes those things less likely.” This is, I suppose, true, but the choice also lends a decidedly rosy cast to these stories. At least one of them married a guy who really wanted a big family and who, she admits while caveating that he’s not a “jerk,” wanted her tested for fertility before they got engaged. “These narratives” of these five-or-more mothers’ lives “sorely challenge family policy prescriptions, particularly pro-natalist policies,” Pakaluk writes. “I’m willing to bet that you’re gonna forget about your hamstring, you’re gonna sprint upstairs, you’re gonna grab your kids, you make sure your wife’s good, and you’re gettin’ out of that house,” Bryant said.
History of this topic
One in four millennials keen to have children ‘say finances are putting them off’
The Independent
American fertility: What both Democrats and Republicans get wrong, and what’s really going on.
Slate
JD Vance's divisive 'childless cat lady' comments highlight very real concerns about America's future that could cost YOU thousands
Daily Mail
Britain’s birth rate halves as wealthy countries face ‘low fertility future’
The Telegraph
Why children of married parents do better, but America is moving the other way
NPR
Economies need to rein in population risks
China Daily
Women choosing to have children much later than previous generations, new data shows
The IndependentDiscover Related
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