Women's wombs are never far from the headlines, and recently everyone's been talking about how fewer women are having children. In November last year, the Office for National Statistics shared that the average fertility rate is now 1.44 children per woman – the lowest figure since records began. A fertility rate of 2.1 children per woman is needed on average to ensure the long-term 'natural' replacement of the population, according to the ONS.
On a recent episode of Loose Women, the panel discussed whether women in the UK should be offered incentives to have children, a method which has seen results in South Korea. Since 2006, South Korea has offered women subsidised childcare, rent reductions and financial support of up to £29,000 per child. This week, it was revealed that South Korea's birth rate is rising, after fears the country was in a demographic crisis, thanks to the country having one of the world’s longest life expectancies and its lowest birth rate.
Paying a woman to have children could be entering murky, dystopian waters, but what's clear is that more support is needed for parents. The debate caused a lively conversation among the panel. Coleen Nolan said the government should make childcare more accessible. 'For a lot of women, they go "If I have to give up work for my baby, and then I want to go back to work, my wages don't cover childcare." So either bring childcare down or give some incentive for that.'
Ruth Langford pointed out that the average age of first-time parent has increased to 31 for mothers, as women place more focus on their careers. 'You have to make having a child an attractive option,' said Janet Street-Porter. 'Having children has got to be made easier by bosses and the government.'
Naturally, this discourse has also spread onto social media, where lots of users have been discussing the falling birth rates happening around the world. One user wrote 'Society has made being a mother the worst job in the world, and people are still wondering why the birth rate is tanking.'
On YouTube, one commenter wrote 'Rather than pay women to have children, make it easier for them to have them. Most women now do not have the luxury to stay at home, they have to work, but child care costs are crippling, wages are stagnant as the cost of living increases exponentially, with wages never rising to meet them. The circumstances to be able to readily have a family and be comfortable is simply out of reach for many, it is why us Millennials have opted out of having children, we cannot afford to.'
Another X user wrote 'News today that birth rate in this country at its lowest - so many reasons - financial / child care costs and g’parents too old, distant, or still working to be able to help, unavailable men, lack of decent housing -plus - some women have decided they don’t want them.'
So, what actually needs to change? Of course, the decision about whether to have children or not is a personal choice. Regardless of financial circumstances, some women simply don't want them - being childfree is an active, and positive choice and that's ok. But for those who do want children, or for women who are on the fence but would like to see a glimmer of hope children could be a possibility in the future, there needs to be real systematic change.
Take childcare. For ten years, Pregnant Then Screwed have been campaigning tirelessly to raise awareness of the broken childcare system. In 2023, a major poll found that one in four UK parents have had to quit a job or drop out of education to avoid the rocketing cost of childcare. Is it any wonder women are delaying, or simply not having, children when the careers they worked so hard for are at risk?
There also needs to be a vast improvement in maternity pay, to prevent women from being priced out by motherhood. Statutory maternity pay is just 47% of the National Living Wage and only 37% of women's median incomes, and past surveys have revealed mums are visiting food banks, racking up debt and rushing back to work before they’re ready to make ends meet. This urgently needs to change.
On top of that, home ownership has become financially unlikely for a whole generation. There's a cost of living crisis and a climate crisis. Dating apps are a shambles. We need to bring men into the conversation, too. The average age of a father at the time of childbirth is steadily rising, with the UK average currently 33.7 years old. Sure, they don't have the ticking biological clock women do, but we need to stop the narrative that women are the only ones to bear this responsibility. For the men who become fathers, the UK's statutory paternity leave is the worst in Europe, making it harder for dads to step up and support women.
If we want to address the falling birth point, we need to stop pointing the finger at women, and fix the problems right in front of us.