Birth Strike

The Hidden Fight over Women's Work

When House Speaker Paul Ryan urged U.S. women to have more children, and Ross Douthat requested 'More babies, please,' they openly expressed what U.S. policymakers have been discussing for decades with greater discretion. Using technical language like 'age structure,' 'dependency ratio,' and 'entitlement crisis,' establishment think tanks are raising the alarm: if U.S. women don't have more children, we'll face an aging workforce, slack consumer demand, and a stagnant economy. Feminists generally believe that a prudish religious bloc is responsible for the fight over reproductive freedom in the U.S., but hidden behind this conventional explanation is a dramatic fight over women's reproductive labour. On one side, elite policymakers want an expanding workforce reared with a minimum of employer spending and a maximum of unpaid women's work. On the other side, women are refusing to produce children at levels desired by economic planners. With little access to childcare, family leave, hea