women of child bearing age

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Women refusing to have children will fuel the market for surrogacy. I'm not quite sure how agencies from the USA are openly marketing in a country where surrogacy is illegal but the possibility of tapping into a growing market is clearly very attractive.

www.reuters.com/article/us-taiwan-lgbt-familyplanning-feature-tr-idUSKBN1YR02P

I live in China, in a city with a lot of Korean expat families. I have a few Korean friends and it's fascinating to learn about their culture and relationship dynamics. I've found that most of the women I know really don't like their husbands very much - and aren't shy about telling you that! These women are all married to company men who work ridiculously long hours, so it may be related to that.

The women love living in China, and are often in tears when their three years here are up - it's like the pressure is off when they're here, their kids aren't being drilled to exhaustion and they have a supportive community of fellow expat wives. My friends make it sound like being a mother in Korea is a very lonely existence, so it's not surprising that so many young women are opting out completely.

China has a related but slightly different issue with its birth rate. Women here are richer and better educated than ever and increasingly have no interest in harming their independence and careers by having children. Plus property here is so expensive that a family home is out of reach for most couples.

My late DH toured Japan four times and had a very visceral revulsion against the misogyny of the culture, and particularly the attitude and behaviour of Japanese men.

He said simply treating Japanese women he met with his normal respect and courtesy got a dramatic reaction. They thought he was wonderful. Not that he was anything special, just that they were never treated like that by their male compatriots. Horrified him.

When we lived in central London we often saw pairs of female Japanese tourists wandering around. He'd mutter under his breath "You've escaped. Now just don't go back." He always hoped they'd stay where they'd be respected.

I wouldn't be surprised if their intense work culture has something to do with it, coupled with very little flexibility for working mums.

Hugely. My Japanese colleague had her son in Singapore and was transferred back when he was a couple of years old. She wants to go back to Singapore as childcare in Tokyo is literally impossible, it’s simply not available. Her mum does most of it.

Just leaving this here: listverse.com/2015/09/06/10-of-the-strangest-aspects-of-japans-sex-culture/

I have to say the thing about men forcing themselves onto women sounds like a complete generalisation/nonsense and borderline racist...

Japan is an incredible country, full of technological advancements. I think the issues are varied and complex as to the falling birth rate but I wouldn't be surprised if their intense work culture has something to do with it, coupled with very little flexibility for working mums.

he told me that men are expected to force themselves onto women when having sex because any woman who makes herself sexually available is seen as a slut.

Japan was already on my list of places never to set foot in. The schoolgirl knickers vending machines made sure of that.

So the standard thing to hear from them is that they disregard all feminist issues (spycams hidden in public bathrooms, appearance based work discrimination, maternity discrimination, domestic violence, abortion not legal until Sept 2020) because they have to do national service and women don't.

Depressingly, the Swiss men I've met hold a less-extreme version of that view. If these men actually wanted parity with women, they'd support feminists in getting rid of all the crap that women face and men don't whilst also lobbying for either an end to national service or for national service to be unisex like Israel's.

My partner was in Japan for a while before I met him and his description of the misogyny out there was horrifying. For example, he told me that men are expected to force themselves onto women when having sex because any woman who makes herself sexually available is seen as a slut. (I hasten to add he was single the whole time he was there as he thought the whole thing was abhorrent.)

Yes quite dB. Caecescu (sp) was horrendous.

Religious right in USA anti abortion anti contraception quiverful etc is also about forcing women (the 'right' sort) to breed. The whole approach of RC. About building numbers of your group. And of course tying women down.

What it might look like in other parts of the world, we will have to see. But men won't like it, and laws can and have been enacted to force women to have babies.

The Male children of single mothers are barred from doing national service as they are seen to be psychologically damaged. This excludes them from what is in many ways a shared right of passage amongst men in Korean society.

Bloody hell!

The way single mothers are treated is disgusting. I recommend looking at the website KUMFA for more information.
Most korean women will risk an illegal abortion or give their babies to orphanages rather than raise a child as a single mother.
The Male children of single mothers are barred from doing national service as they are seen to be psychologically damaged. This excludes them from what is in many ways a shared right of passage amongst men in Korean society.

That film was very popular with young women. Sadly not very many young men are supportive of Korea's new feminist movement.
All able bodied young men have to do a few years of national service. So the standard thing to hear from them is that they disregard all feminist issues (spycams hidden in public bathrooms, appearance based work discrimination, maternity discrimination, domestic violence, abortion not legal until Sept 2020) because they have to do national service and women don't.

If women decide en masse not to have kids, men won't like it, governments won't like it, and I don't like to think what the reaction might be.

Romania, Decree 770. historycollection.co/17-moments-in-history-that-inspired-the-handmaids-tale/17/

Re Japan: isn't one of the reasons for declining birth-rate that they don't have much inward migration? While it's common in affluent countries for women to have fewer children, in, eg Europe, it's balanced by inward migrants having children and adding to the birthrate. And often at a higher percentage rate than the local population, which in some countries has dropped below the rate to maintain population numbers.

It's the incel issue isn't it? Women have a choice now, and who wants to sign up to play a subordinate/shit role in someone else's misogyny?

The difference is that incels say women should be forced to be treated like shit, because poor men with no wives/girlfriends.

Women say if you didn't treat women like shit, they might want to be with you, get a grip.

I watch a lot of kdrama and I’ve been agog at some of the sex discrimination in the workplace dramas, especially towards single mothers.

I hear Kim Ji Young, born 1982 caused quite a stir when it was released in cinemas in SK recently, 1M1ce. Is the feminist movement taking off in earnest, and are younger men supportive or pushing back?

I've also heard discussion that as women begin to realise that marriage equals exchanging independence, autonomy and freedom for a strongly defined subordinate role in a strongly patriarchal society, women are choosing to stay single. And who can blame them?

I just had my annual meet up with old friends, many of whom I went to school with. It's amazing how many women of my generation were either very briefly married, and escaped it like a bat out of hell, or are still happily single. With career, a number of them with kids, and all of them happy that way.

www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.com/news/amp/stories-45201725

At the moment no Gilead situation, just financial incentives. Every woman who has paid into national insurance gets 600 thousand won (spending power out there of 600 quid) on a card which can be used for medical things. Theres no NHS so it is useful. I was in korea until I was 6 months pregnant, and still had money left on my card when I left.

Yeah its dreadful. Most koreans are born with mono lids, but the culture is that they are seen as ugly. 1 in 4 korean women will have the double eyelid surgery.

It's really interesting to me that Japan and S Korea have the same issue, very low birth rate, but different causes. Especially as they are so close geographically.