[triceratops]

It's kinda both? If women work professional jobs too, the men have to work correspondingly fewer hours. Child-rearing is an exhausting battle when both parents work full-time.

We need to normalize working part-time for couples, even for professional jobs, even going so far as to make it a cultural non-negotiable. And/or compensate for the lost income.

Without the cultural shift, it turns into a prisoner's dilemma. When both partners fight through the exhaustion and work full-time while also raising children, they can outbid everyone else for houses, schools, and cars.

[dyauspitr]

> the men have to work correspondingly fewer hours.

This is categorically not true. The decreased labor cost makes the new norm that both of them have to work full time.

[triceratops]

You're pointing out the effect of everyone working full-time. I told you what needs to happen if we want a society where women can work outside the home and there's no fertility crisis.

[dyauspitr]

And what I’m saying is if you want a high birth rate you have to have a culture where women don’t work outside the home and are not empowered which is what the data shows. What you’re suggesting is hopeful conjecture that has many, many counterexamples in today’s world.

[triceratops]

There's counterexamples of countries where enforced 50% time schedules for couples are the norm? I haven't seen any myself...it's about as realistic as "force women back into the kitchen". But much fairer.

I would love to see an example of a country where couples with children can each work 50% time but get paid like both are working full-time. Unrealistic, yes. But also arguably fair.