Declin­ing birth rates are a symp­tom of a male mal­aise

I was struck by the FT’s sep­ar­ate cov­er­age of two recent news stor­ies: the emer­gence of a new polit­ical gender divide (Data Points, Janu­ary 27) and fall­ing birth rates in the pro­gress­ive Nor­dics (The Henry Mance Inter­view, Janu­ary 29). As a demo­graphic researcher inter­ested in men’s health beha­viours, I have a strong sense that these are related and a sign of what’s to come.

In her inter­view, demo­grapher Anna Rotkirch points out that nearly 40 per cent of Finnish men with low edu­ca­tion are now child­less by the age of 45, and most have no part­ners. While my col­leagues at the Lever­hulme Centre for Demo­graphic Sci­ence recently showed that early-life dis­eases play a sig­ni­fic­ant role, oth­ers have linked male child­less­ness to life­style factors like alco­hol­ism.

But I believe there is a miss­ing piece to this puzzle: cul­ture. Spe­cific­ally, ste­reo­types around mas­culin­ity con­tinue to encour­age young men to view care work and tak­ing equal par­ental leave as fem­in­ist and unmanly.

Recent polling is show­ing that boys and men from Gen Z are now more likely than older baby boomers to believe that fem­in­ism has done more harm than good. Young women think the oppos­ite. The res­ult, as John Burn-Mur­doch explains in his piece, is that young men and young women’s world views are pulling apart. While the con­sequences could be far-reach­ing, I believe decreas­ing birth rates are already one of the symp­toms of this male mal­aise.

When stud­ies ask women who want to have chil­dren why they’re not hav­ing any, one of the most com­mon replies is: they don’t have the sup­port. Fin­land is show­ing that fam­ily-friendly gov­ern­ment policies aren’t enough. Male part­ners are simply not embody­ing the sup­port women need to have chil­dren.

Regard­less of whether we want to increase birth rates or not, a cul­ture that fails to teach boys and men to be more caring and nur­tur­ing and to ask for help — includ­ing from each other — ulti­mately also leaves them worse off. Self-reli­ant, con­ser­vat­ive ideals of mas­culin­ity can lead to loneli­ness and exacer­bate risky health beha­viours like alco­hol abuse.

So where do we go from here? A first step is to take the lime­light away from the likes of Andrew Tate and start a new con­ver­sa­tion about men; one that shows images of a caring, vul­ner­able and nur­tur­ing mas­culin­ity as more healthy. Those who will bene­fit are men them­selves and soci­ety as a whole.

Vin­cent Straub
Nuf­field Depart­ment of Pop­u­la­tion Health
Uni­versity of Oxford, Oxford­shire, UK