Schoppa Abstract

"Feminism as the New Natalism: 21st Century Prescriptions for Addressing Low Fertility"

When marriage and fertility rates first began falling in Europe and Japan, feminists applauded this evidence that women were finally taking advantage of new freedoms afforded by the relaxation of social norms that had pressed earlier generations of women into the roles of wife and mother.  As fertility rates reached record lows in Germany, Southern Europe and Japan, however, feminists in these societies soon joined the conversation about why birth rates had fallen so low and eventually began to articulate a feminist explanation for the trend and a prescription for addressing the problem.  This paper traces the emergence of “feminism as the new natalism” and evaluates the studies and arguments that are the basis for these claims that fertility will only recover when societies that have defined marriage and motherhood in traditional ways open up to embrace diverse types of families and work-family balance.  It then examines the uneven efforts to put these prescriptions into practice in low-fertility societies, with a particular focus on recent family policy changes in Japan, Germany, and Italy.