This sort of essay is farcical in ascribing economic stability as "status" - which of course has a negative connotation of seeking status, but suppose thats on track for a man writing an essay about this. Women( and men) need to work now because single incomes are not enough, and women biologically have larger burden in child rearing regardless. Economic incentives for child rearing are a joke, much like most policy that ends up more as a panacea than a solution - because none of it targets the other huge correlation we see, the growing level of inequality of wealth where the top n% is accumulating more and more. One need not look at number of lawsuits regarding women getting fired or laid off from work for needing/taking maternal leave. In the US you often need to be tenured for a year to qualify for it. These are all economic issues at it's core, and the tautology to it being status seeking is an damaging one in and of itsef.
- permitting child labor (as long as it's in a local business)
- ending sex education
- denying student loans to women
- permitting hiring discrimination
Not sure how well such measures would fly with the general public.
It's almost like no one here has actually talked to women in their 20s and early 30s. While cost does play a role, almost every guy (and it's always guys) seems to ignore polling amongst women [0] that highlights this shift.
Women face the physical effects of childbirth and the subsequent recovery (if they recover), as well as stalled careers and the continued existence of patriarchical norms. Unsurprisingly, the younger generation of women are much less interested compared to men, because now they have a choice.
[0] - https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/reasons...
This sounds.... circular? The reason they didn't have children is they just didn't? This study is strange.
57% of all American women under 50 don't want children as the Pew Survey showed. I honestly don't understand why it's so hard for so many guys to not get that a lot of women are uninterested in having kids.
And this is a common sentiment globally as living standards rise.
Status is only loosely related to what those people want. It just just one of many aspects.
Gestating and expulsing a living human being is very difficult to physically and mentally recover from.
All we as guys need to do is put our shlong in. Women have to deal with the physical and mental externalities of that, so unsurprisingly a lot of young women are increasingly uninterested in having kids even if status played a role (which it doesn't as polling amongst women points out).
You are talking about grand ideas here, but I do not mean like that at all. I mean things like "being able to have time to read a book I like or being able to watch tv series". Or, "being able to leave it the relationship gets abusive". Or, "having a little thing of my own I created". Or like "not loosing all my interests and hobbies, being able to keep at least some of them". Or like, "having an hour of uninterrupted time".
I did not mentioned "coolest guy at the party". In relations to moms, we are talking about "not being completely isolated from society for prolonged time" or "being able to socialize often enough to not loose social skills" or "just going to a party once in a while". Or "being able to keep a semi interesting job". Or just "have a topic to talk about, so that the party does not consists of me sitting there having nothing to say feeling like I dont belong".
A lot of those are things that other people don't even see and have no way to judge. They are things you are taking as granted, but if you have kids, you are at risk of loosing those.
The Fertility Rate of Every Country in the World - https://www.visualcapitalist.com/fertility-rate-of-world-pop... - May 17th, 2026
It truly sounds like you think it's a cakewalk and does not have long term side effects. This is why plenty of women just aren't interested in having kids no matter how much money or status is offered.
Women have to deal with Lochia, Perineal Soreness, Uterine Cramps, Pelvic Floor Weakness, significant Hormonal Shifts, Postpartum Depression, Hypertension, Diabetes (yes, pregnancy does induce diabetes), Hemorrhages, and other physical and mental experiences that can take a significant toll.
A generation or two ago, most women had kids because they didn't really have a choice. Now you are seeing what the true choice is amongst a growing proportion of women.