In Sunday’s New York Times Magazine, there’s an interesting piece about moms and work called The Motherhood Experiment. As you probably have read, there is a trend for women in industrialized countries are having less children than they used to. The United States escapes dthis phenomenon of dwindling birth rates because of recent immigrant families who tend to have larger families. But stay here long enough, and the birth rate will dwindle (it’s now at replacement levels):

While scholars blame several phenomena, including greater access to birth
control, later marriage and a drop in what one researcher calls “hopefulness
about the future,” many researchers agree that at least part of the problem is
due to the particular burdens women face in the work force. If becoming a mother
requires a woman to take a huge financial and professional hit, the thinking
goes, she will be far less likely do it.

Indeed.

Via Feministing