Not so long ago, Finland was a model of a wealthy, egalitarian culture that valued family and, as a result, was able to have more babies.
The “Finnish Baby Box” was taken as a symbol of how social democracy supported mothers, thereby resulting in high birth rates.
Finland is home to “world-class obstetric care.” A fulfilling parental leave. The right to receive preschool childcare has been published as a new article. financial times layout.
But this new perspective on Finland comes in the context of the country’s plummeting birthrate.
Between 2000 and 2010, Finland’s fertility rate increased, from 1.7 to 1.9 babies per woman. Since then, it has collapsed, dropping to 1.27. financial times. The U.S. also saw a collapse in the birthrate during this period, but it still remains above 1.6.
Feminist and egalitarian Finland has converged in fertility with Italy and Poland, which for two decades had been touted as conservative, traditionalist, patriarchal societies with very low birth rates.
Feminism and “social democracy” were supposed to make society happy and fertile. what happened?
Anna Rotkirch, head of research at the Finnish Household Federation Population Research Institute, explained this mystery: financial times:
“The weird thing about fertility is that no one really knows what’s going on,” she says. “Because it’s a new situation, policy responses are untested. It’s not primarily driven by economics or family policy. It’s cultural, psychological, biological, cognitive.”
The United States is only just beginning to address the problem of declining sub-replacement fertility rates. Most of the answers from commentators and politicians concern subsidies for children, particularly government-funded or government-run daycare centres.
“When you work with politicians, you always see the same thing,” Rotkirch said. “‘Oh yeah, and he needs a month of paternity leave!’ All the academics are saying, ‘Oh, he should, but that doesn’t change anything.’
The issues that cause our baby busts are issues of culture and values. Mr. Rotkirch pointed out one of his interesting aspects of Finnish culture. financial times: “Having a family now means sacrificing your independence.”
This illustrates the key issue here. The hyper-individualistic cultures of Europe and America are not conducive environments for family formation. Furthermore, families cannot be raised in a society that values career above all else.
Demographers Laurie DeRose and Lyman Stone conducted a study a few years ago that compared “workism” to “familism” in the Nordic countries. How much importance does the population of each country place on work compared to family?
Click here to read the full Washington Examiner article
Here’s what they discovered: “Denmark, the only country in Northern Europe where the importance of work declined, also had the smallest decline in fertility over the measurement period. Finland, on the other hand, experienced the largest decline in fertility and also the decline in the importance of work. has increased the most.”
Perhaps family subsidies have made it easier for parents to work in Finland, but day care subsidies have primarily served as a subsidy to work, making Finns more work-oriented and Familyism has faded. Finns didn’t necessarily start working long hours, but they did seem to start structuring their lives around their careers. That means you can’t tolerate obsessions that might keep you from optimizing your career.