Revisiting the baby bust: Is "The Children of Men" prophetic?

Revisiting the baby bust:

Rita McGrath | Thought Sparks

Is “The Children

of

Men” prophetic?

“The

Children

of Men” is a dystopian

1992

novel by P. D.

James about a world in 2021 when humanity is experiencing mass infertility. While we seem to have so far avoided such a dramatic fate, populations seem set to drop in countries across the world, with results that are sure to be surprising.

There aren’t enough

babies

In a Wall Street Journal article that just came out, reporters Greg Ip and Janet Adamy revisit the population statistics, four years postpandemic, across the globe. They don’t mince their words: Fertility is falling almost everywhere, for women across all levels of income, education and labor-force participation. The falling birthrates come with huge implications for the way people live, how economies grow and the standings of the world’s superpowers.

Voting with their wombs

Gender and aging expert Avivah Wittenberg-Cox has been saying for a long time that the rise of women ’ s equality and greater economic opportunity means that for the first time on a mass scale, women have the opportunity to “vote with their wombs.”

She argues that country policies are often to blame for women ’ s increasing reluctance to start or grow families. As she says, “I’d argue that it’s precisely policy that is at fault. It isn’t - anywherenear ambitious enough. If countries want babies, they’ll need to get far more serious about building more gender-balanced economies, democracies and couples.”

Men getting involved and “intensive”

parenting

Another theory that I have is that more young men are experiencing how hard it is to look after a newborn by taking advantage of parental leave (that’s good). They, too, are reconsidering the bandwidth and energy it takes to bring children into the world (maybe not so good). I’ve personally been impressed with the involvement of many men in my daughter’s age cohort who don’t just “help out” but actually take responsibility as equal partners in child care.

And,

just in time to wave Mother’s Day 2024 away, a realistic job interview

If you haven’t seen it, this job interview from a few year ’ s back humorously makes the point – this parenting thing is really har

What are the conseque nces?

If you listen to the sky-isfalling crowd on the subject of fewer babies, I find it interesting that the negative consequences – less ability to fund pensions, a smaller workforce, less demand, slower growth, abandoned towns, empty villages and so forth – look at consequences almost exclusively at the organizational or systems level.

Want to spark some thinking in your own organization?

https://thoughtsparks.substack.com/