Cohen comments on fertility decline
Protecting child's opportunities in an increasingly unequal environment
Writing in the New York Times, Clair Cain Miller reports on an NYT survey of 1858 adults, 20-45 years of age, that finds fewer Americans are having children and more than half of that group will have fewer children than they would like. Gender equality is certainly a factor, but according to Faculty Associate Philip Cohen there are economic factors as well: "We want to invest more in each child to give them the best opportunities to compete in an increasingly unequal environment,” he said. Nonetheless, “There is no getting around the fact that the relationship between gender equality and fertility is very strong: There are no high-fertility countries that are gender equal,” he added.
Also picked up by the Seattle Times