{"id":278551,"date":"2025-06-18T07:14:00","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T07:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/18\/demographic-panic-pressuring-women-eurozine\/"},"modified":"2025-06-25T17:08:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-25T17:08:02","slug":"demographic-panic-pressuring-women-eurozine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/18\/demographic-panic-pressuring-women-eurozine\/","title":{"rendered":"Demographic panic pressuring women | Eurozine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> [ad_1]<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div id=\"main-text\">\n<p><iframe title=\"Demographic panic pressures women I Standard Time talk show S2E13 I IWD2025\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/DgQqevIgnzI?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/articles\/PMC4255510\/\">Birth rates<\/a> are steadily decreasing worldwide for the first time since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Russia and China have been struggling with its effects for decades; Europe, India and South Korea have recently started to contend with this phenomenon.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since 1804, the global population has grown from 1 billion to an astonishing <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ourworldindata.org\/population-growth\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">8 billion<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> people, thanks in a large part to greater agricultural productivity and medical advancements. World population growth hit its peak of 2.1% annually in 1968 but has since slowed to 1.1%.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So now the demographic concern has shifted from a fear of overpopulation to a concern with haemorrhaging polities and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dictionary.cambridge.org\/dictionary\/english\/pro-natalism\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">pronatalism<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is on the rise once again. It\u2019s been a pet theory of both Fascist and Communist dictatorships, who see population size as a means to amass greater power. More recently, tech oligarchs also started to hop on this bandwagon.<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"opegVAq46w\"><p> &#13;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/cba.media\/700201\">Standard Time talk show S2E13: The demographic panic<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201eStandard Time talk show S2E13: The demographic panic\u201c \u2013 cba - cultural broadcasting archive\" src=\"https:\/\/cba.media\/700201\/embed#?secret=Crp7lvvxoT#?secret=opegVAq46w\" data-secret=\"opegVAq46w\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><em>You can also listen to the episodes of Standard Time in a podcast format on CBA, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pronatalist policies could very well be a non-partisan issue when aimed well, Kristijan Fidanovski argues in his article titled <a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/authors\/fidanovski-kristijan\/\"><em>The right policy for the wrong reasons<\/em><\/a>. But the policies in vogue favour restrictive measures, such as opposing effective birth control and abortions, and curbing women\u2019s opportunities. The discourse often features strong racial overtones as well, and class implications, quite like Elon Musk advocating for wealthy people to have more kids.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a political and economic mindset tuned to the idea of perpetual growth and measuring national economies against one another, there is rising resistance against immigration, even in economies directly built on immigrant labour, quite like in Europe and North America.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Is there room for concern?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Despite the questionable overtones, there are good reasons to be concerned. Most economies, especially in welfare states, are built on a model where active generations of wage earners provide for their contemporary dependents through an intricate system of taxes and dues that sustain health care systems, schools and pensions, and more.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Is there a way to remodel developed economies so that fewer people can provide for more dependents? Not only are birth rates decreasing, so is the relative taxation of the highest earners across much of the globe. Are we ever going to entertain the idea of taxing the rich?<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Do women have a choice?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This discourse focusses very heavily on gender norms, societal expectations and put a lot of pressure on the people who dare not utilize their wombs for reproduction.\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Sociologists Claudia Rahnfeld and Annkathrin Heuschkel conducted a deep study on the\u00a0 <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhge.de\/DHGE\/Hochschule\/Forschung-und-Transfer\/Forschungsprojekte\/Gewollte-Kinderlosigkeit---Empirische-Untersuchung-zur-Entscheidung-von-Frauen-fu-r-ein-Leben-ohne-Kinder.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">subject and found:<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The decision to become childless is made much more on the basis of individual motives and not because of the framework conditions, which was previously assumed. The main reasons for women are a desire for self-realization, free time and more freedom. These motives are far ahead of other motives such as the ecological footprint.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet, the level of freedom and free time varies wildly across social strata and societies, depending on the availability and price of childcare, the quality of public education and health care systems. In some of the richest countries, such as the US and UK, parents have to spend a significant proportion of their income on childcare just to be able to go to work to have any income whatsoever.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s important to note a surprising fact: according to new research childless women have not only been ever present, and important pillar of our communities and wider society, but also rather numerous across the past century. For example in Austria <a href=\"https:\/\/library.oapen.org\/bitstream\/handle\/20.500.12657\/29707\/2017_Book_ChildlessnessInEuropeContextsC.pdf?sequence=1#page=122\">they constituted<\/a> 29.1% of the population in 1900.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Having children, or not having them is such a deeply intimate and personal question that many legitimately want policy makers to take a step back and instead of exerting pressure, rather provide circumstances so that the babies people want to have can actually be born and raised, respecting people\u2019s individual lives and decisions.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this Standard Time Episode we have invited three experts to talk about pronatalism, population decline and childcare!<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>Guests<\/h2>\n<p><b>Dr Regina Fuchs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> heads the Population Directorate at Statistics Austria. This is where statistics on demographics, health, the labour market, education, living conditions, research and digitalisation are compiled. She is also responsible for the Science Centre with the Austrian Micro Data Centre (AMDC).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Kristijan Fidanovski<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> studied Politics and East European Studies at University College London, and Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies at Georgetown University. He is a doctoral candidate in Social Policy and Demography at the University of Oxford.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Mag. Dr. Gerlinde Mauerer<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, senior scientist at the Department of Sociology at the University of Vienna, Austria. She primarily works in research on gender and family, empirical sociology, health and social inequalities, critical masculinities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Creative team<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">R\u00e9ka Kinga Papp, editor-in-chief<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Daniela Univazo Marquina, writer-editor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Merve Akyel, art director<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Zeynep Feriha Demir, producer<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Zs\u00f3fia Gabriella Papp, digital producer<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Management<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Priyanka Hutschenreiter, project manager<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Judit Csik\u00f3s, financial manager<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Csilla Nagyn\u00e9 Kardos, office administration<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">OKTO Crew<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Senad Hergi\u0107, producer<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Leah Hochedlinger, video recording<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marlena Stolze, video recording<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clemens Schmiedbauer, video recording<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Richard Brusek, sound recording<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Postproduction<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mil\u00e1n Golovics, dialogue editor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">D\u00e1niel Nagy, dialogue editor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">N\u00f3ra Ruszkai, video editor<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Istv\u00e1n Nagy, post production<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Art<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Victor Maria Lima, animation<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Music by Crypt-of-Insomnia<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Captions and subtitles<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Julia Sobota\u00a0 closed captions, Polish and French subtitles; language versions management<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farah Ayyash\u00a0 Arabic subtitles<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mia Bel\u00e9n Soriano\u00a0 Spanish subtitles<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Marta Ferdebar\u00a0 Croatian subtitles<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">L\u00eddia N\u00e1dori\u00a0 German subtitles<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Katalin Szlukov\u00e9nyi\u00a0 Hungarian subtitles<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Olena Yermakova\u00a0 Ukrainian subtitles<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br \/><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Aida Yermekbayeva\u00a0 Russian subtitles<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hosted by <a href=\"https:\/\/gleis21.wien\/kaffeesatz\/\">Kaffesatz at <\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Gleis 21<\/span><\/h3>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Disclosure<\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This talk show is a <a href=\"https:\/\/displayeurope.eu\/hu\">Display Europe<\/a> production: a ground-breaking media platform anchored in public values.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This programme is co-funded by the Creative Europe Programme of the European Union and the <a href=\"https:\/\/culturalfoundation.eu\/\">European Cultural Foundatio<\/a>n.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Importantly, the views and opinions expressed here are those of the authors and speakers only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the EACEA can be held responsible for them.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-30258 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/eu_Ecf_logos.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"437\" height=\"108\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/eu_Ecf_logos.jpg 437w, https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/eu_Ecf_logos-300x74.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 437px) 100vw, 437px\"\/><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>[ad_2]<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eurozine.com\/demographic-panic-pressuring-women\/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=demographic-panic-pressuring-women\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ad_1] Birth rates are steadily decreasing worldwide for the first time since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Russia and China have been struggling with<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":278552,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[154],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278551"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278551"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278551\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michigandigitalnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}