What Do Women Want? Choices.

Posted by: Cathy Arnst on July 02

With the 4th of July approaching, it’s a good time for working mothers in America to thank our founding fathers. They did us two great favors—they freed us from European rule, and they devised a list of civil liberties that, while denied to women at the birth of the nation, once extended did assure that we would be given equal rights in the workplace and in society. For a sense of what might have happened had America remained tethered to Europe, just read No Babies?, a fascinating article in the New York Times Sunday magazine on the very low birth rate in many European countries. To keep a population stable, there must be an average of 2.1 births per woman, also known as the replacement rate. But in some southern and eastern European nations, such as Spain, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria, the birth rate has dropped below 1.3 children, which means the population could be cut in half in 45 years.

One might assume that the low birth rate follows the movement of women in to the workplace, leaving them less time or interest in hearth and home. One would be wrong. The Scandinavian countries have the highest percentage of women in the workforce, and also have the highest fertility rates in Europe.

“High fertility was associated with high female labor-force participation … and the lowest fertility levels in Europe since the mid-1990s are often found in countries with the lowest female labor-force participation.” In other words, working mothers are having more babies than stay-at-home moms.

Don’t assume that the dual income simply makes having more children economically feasible. According to various studies, the key to understanding birth-rates is not the family income, or the work-force participation of women, but the home participation of men. Researchers have discovered that, in societies where women do 75% or more of the housework and childcare, they are less likely to have another child than in countries where fathers share the load. In Scandinavia and Holland, small countries that very much want and need women to work in order to remain competitive, lengthy maternal and parental leaves are guaranteed, high quality child care is subsidized and widely available, and fathers do close to 50% of the home care. In Italy, mothers are expected to stay home after the birth of a child, and there is little support from the state or the father.

The U.S. is a slightly different situation. The birthrate is 2.1, higher than almost any developed nation, even though there is little official support for working mothers. But America offers working mothers something few other countries have: flexibility.

As Hans-Peter Kohler of the University of Pennsylvania writes: “In general, women are deterred from having children when the economic cost — in the form of lower lifetime wages — is too high. Compared to other high-income countries, this cost is diminished by an American labor market that allows more flexible work hours and makes it easier to leave and then re-enter the labor force.” An American woman might choose to suspend her career for three or five years to raise a family, expecting to be able to resume working; that happens far less easily in Europe.

Mothers in the U.S. may not get a lot of public support for working, but at least we can’t be (legally) discriminated against. And our economy is so large it can accommodate part-time workers, free-lance workers, entrepreneurs, and all the other models that help mothers combine work and childcare. Plus, it isn’t really socially acceptable anymore in most communities for fathers to do nothing at all at home. I’ve been to Greece, Italy and Spain, and have always been amazed at the groups of men hanging out in the evenings, smoking their cigars and drinking their wine. Where are their wives and kids, I wonder? Now I know—the wives are at home, not having babies.

The flexibility guaranteed to American women is likely one reason the U.S. ranks 16th on the Happiness index, above some 80 other nations. The index is a periodic survey officially known as the World Values Survey conducted by a global network of social scientists. The latest was released last week, and revealed that people kept getting happier from 1981 to 2007 in 42 of 52 countries polled. Interestingly, a country’s happiness level did not relate to economic prosperity so much as greater democracy and social tolerance. In other word, choices.

“Though by no means the happiest country in the world, from a global perspective the U.S. looks pretty good,” says Ronald Inglehart, a political scientist at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research. “The country is not only prosperous; it ranks relatively high in gender equality, tolerance of ethnic and social diversity and has high levels of political freedom.”

Liberty, equality and the pursuit of happiness. Let’s all thank Tom Jefferson and company on Friday for putting in place the rules that got us where we are today.

Or else move to Denmark, the No. 1 country for happiness. And the country with one of the highest birth rates in Europe. Almost all Danish mothers work, thanks to one of the most generous family benefit policies: A full year’s paid maternity leave (which can be shared with the father), fully subsidized childcare, and generous tax credits for children.

Then again, they don’t get 4th of July fireworks.

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