The New York Times Magazine this past Sunday joined the chorus of alarm over the declining birth rates of Europe. The implicit message: we Americans will be left alone in a world overrun by the brown hordes because the wimmens of Europe will not breed for the Fatherland. I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
The most interesting conclusion to me -- that the nations in which women attain high levels of education, but nevertheless maintain a patriarchal culture under the surface -- Spain, Italy, Greece, as well as Japan and South Korea -- have extremely low birth rates. In essence, women seem to be opting out of having children in nations where their husbands are likely to be momma's boys who won't share the burdens of child rearing. The sophisticated welfare states of Scandinavia with their more egalitarian relations between the sexes have much higher birth rates, as do England and France, which has a longstanding tradition of pro-natalist welfare state innovations. Paradoxically, the states in Europe with the highest birth rates are also those with the most robust participation by women in the work force.
