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Victoria's avatar

Very thought provoking article, thank you. I would add that it's very hard to get a man to marry you these days or agree to have children. There is no societal push if you're British; I have 3 friends (2 British and 1 Canadian) who have children through sperm donors, and these mothers have no choice but to send the children to nursery and continue working. The alternative is an even lower birthrate than the abysmal one we have now.

Another thing is it's hard to survive on a man's income only. My ex and I costed it up and saw we couldn't do it. But don't believe that in our hearts a great proportion of British women wouldn't have preferred to have husbands and stayed at home with the kids!

It seems to me there are no mothers praised in the media, apart from perhaps royals, the praise is for female entrepreneurs, businesswomen and celebrities.

As you indicate, generations of British people now see divorce as the norm. I would say because of this ease of divorce women fear being left alone with the kids and sinking into poverty, while men fear having their kids taken off them and having to pay dearly for it.

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John's avatar
Jun 6Edited

I like the author but it is men not women who have abandoned the family. I have seen this pattern IRL (including personal experience) scores of time and very rarely the opposite. And it’s obviously true because it is women who have the drive to have children at a very deep and immovable level. There may be loser men out there who can’t get a woman but I’m a right wing man and so don’t care about that and also they should sort themselves out

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