To ask why dropping fertility rates are always blamed/measured on women?!

[Unreconstituted]

It takes two, you know! Where is all the handwringing over men not having children?!

You mean birth rate not fertility rate yes?
And yes, I’d say women should get credit for falling birth rates. We are the ones with reproductive rights and make the decision to stay pregnant or terminate. Falling birth rates will save the planet from overpopulation….so blame I away say- it’s credit not blame,

Everything is women's fault - I thought everyone knew that ?

No, it is reported as fertility rates.

Fertility rate in England and Wales drops to new low - BBC News

IKR?

Heaven forbid men take some responsibility.

Quite. They threw it in as an after thought here - but they never mention that maybe it’s because of the massive impact on women of having children and maybe that’s why women are having less children - many don’t want them at all, or don’t want them when it will have such a disproportionate impact on them instead of men

usually never mention

Yup, It's always "women are having fewer/later children" 🙄

lol what ignorant uneducated journalist is writing a birth rate as a fertility rate.
The article is talking about birth rates, not fertility rates. Fertility rates are a measure of how quickly a couple get pregnant. Birth rates are number of children born per women.

Anyway, let them blame away. It’s true we women decide and it is also true we are saving the planet and all humanity by having fewer children. So 100% credit is on us.

You wouldn’t get accurate statistics if you went on how many children men were having, if you think about it.

Tell me about it, OP.

Me and my partner have been going through infertility for 5 horrible years, and the problem is male factor. He has an underlying condition which is the cause of it. There are no issues with me and I have had many investigations.

It really winds me up the number of people who seem to make an assumption that I have an issue, even after they have been told a hundred times that it's a male factor problem. People still seem to love the idea of suggesting there is something wrong with me.

It makes me wish I never shared anything sometimes - these are close friends/ family - and I was asked today by a well-meaning friend if I'd considered taking blood thinners. Arrgh!

Because women are the ones who are socialised to prioritise babies over everything else, men are free to do whatever they like, including having kids or not bothering.

No, the fertility rate in this context is the number of babies each woman is expected to have in her reproductive life. It's a well-established technical term.

Very different to birth rates, which depend on the number of women aged 18-45 that there happen to be in the population.

Oh sure, there are so many men just begging women to have children, and we refuse!

Have they never spoken to a man under about 50? The majority don't want kids even if their partners do; you only have to look at the numbers of posts here where women want children but their partners and husbands are saying 'no, not yet, when x happens-OK, x has happened, but it needs to wait until y, no, not getting married, too young for all that, don't want to be trapped, GET RID OF IT', etc, etc, etc. They just want regular free sex, their clothes washed and dinner cooked in a clean home and to keep their options open in case somebody younger/under 24/wealthier/with bigger breasts comes along and is impressed by a 47 year old van driver from Acton.

You clearly haven't read the article.

Exactly.

TFR or ‘fertility rate’ = total number of births per woman over their lifetime.

‘birth rate’ = how many births that year.

Interestingly the ONS have said they’re not really sure what the current rapid drop means for the UK as women are having babies a lot older - but aren’t necessary at the end of the age period they may have babies. So todays 30.8 year olds have their first, have another ~15 years in which they statistically may have more children.

So - not entirely clear what the data means.

Did you mean to reply to someone else? Because my definition of fertility rates is correct.

Birth rate, by contrast, is the number of babies born per 1,000 population, which depends on the population age distribution as well as how many babies each woman has.

THe article starts by saying this:

Women in England and Wales had an average of 1.44 children between 2022 and 2023, the lowest rate on record.

But then it says this:

Research suggests, external millennials, born up to the mid-1990s, are not having children because of financial pressures, not feeling ready or having not found the right partner

And this:

For countries to maintain their populations, the fertility rate needs to be around 2.1 children per woman

It's always down to women 🙄

I don't mind that the focus is on women because it's women who are disproportionately disadvantaged by having children, and perhaps it will spotlight how little support there is. Poor maternity care, pitiful maternity pay that doesn't cover living expenses, extortionate childcare fees, lack of flexible working options, societal expectations of women to still do all the child-rearing. Having children is not for the faint-hearted.

Yes, this 1.44 fertility rate sounds super technical but it's based on quite a lot of assumptions about what women aged under 45 will do in their future. Big error bars either way.

Men don't give birth at all so why would they be implicated in the birth rate? That makes no sense.

I guess it feeds into my rage at "Career women are having children later" type nonsense.

Where are all those men begging women to have babies with them earlier?!

It's never on the men, is it.