Is university education for women destroying society as we know it?

[Super Hans]

People are working longer and living longer so they have time to have kids later.

[Rupert_Baehr]

That's all true Rupert but your last sentence holds the key, the population may well increase but it's the age distribution that will create massive socio-economic problems in the years to come as the population will become 'over weighted' towards people who are retired, living longer and in need of health care and social support.

 

Yes, there was a baby-boom and yes, those baby-boomers will be around for a while yet (though if some of the articles on the increase of acute obesity and type 2 diabetes are true, life expectancy may decrease significantly in 30 or 40 years time.)

 

The baby boom caused a huge increase in the number of people who will have to be supported, but there was also a huge increase in the size of the work force - an increase which the sociologists tend conveniently to ignore.

 

The people who are in work provide the funds (through taxes, NIC etc) to support those who are not.

 

When you and I were children, it was fairly uncommon for both parents to go to work. That began to change in the 60's and nowadays it's fairly uncommon for only one parent to work.

 

Surely all those working women pay taxes and help to support the elderly?

 

When those women entered the workforce, did that not cause a huge increase in the size of the work force?

 

Perhaps the problem is not simply that more people are living longer. Perhaps society was lulled into a false sense of security. The workforce increased (nearly doubled, perhaps) and the contributions were used to pay for a relatively small number of pensioners.

 

There will be no increase in the workforce which will come anywhere near the size of the increase which occurred as most women went to work. Perhaps (and I think this is almost inevitable) society is going to have to review - and re-vamp - the way in which it looks after its elderly.

 

People - as individuals - are going to have to put more money aside to care for their old age. Families are going to have to take on some of the burden of looking after elderly relatives.

[Cyclone]

Society has always changed, the suggestion that change is destruction doesn't seem to be supported by the evidence, and to blame it on the education of women smells a little bit misogynistic to me, at least if the implication is that women shouldn't receive such an education.

[Happ Hazzard]

We need to stop chavs breeding 2 generations to normal societies one. There are plenty of chav grandmothers in their 30s, barely older than the average age for working mothers to have their first child.

 

Another problem is that humanity is basically splitting into two. You can see the early stages of this already, chavs are noticeably shorter and uglier than their betters.

[suebeedoo]

Another problem is that humanity is basically splitting into two. You can see the early stages of this already, chavs are noticeably shorter and uglier than their betters.

 

That was misreported as serious science - it was a tongue in cheek fictional report created for a television programme.

[Vague_Boy]

University educated women are drastically delaying childbirth! They are leaving it so long that they sometimes become infertile!

 

University educated women are

 

[a] More likely to have a full-time job

More likely to attempt the Herculean task of buying an overpriced property in today's out of touch market

 

As a consequence, they may delay having children while they

 

[a] Save for a home

Build up their career

 

and, once they do have children, only have the one because

 

[a] The cost of the child minding fees which they need to pay because

They can't afford to give up work for too long as it needs 2 full-time incomes to buy an overpriced slave box these days.

 

High house prices, they're great! (Except when they aren't. )

 

Lack of affordable homes delays parenthood

[matsalleh]

Certain sections of our society who rarely sent their daughters to school have now realised their sons tend to be lazy and their daughters not.

So it makes sense to send the daughters to university in the hope that they then will get good jobs and look after them for the rest of their lives.

[Ms Macbeth]

The biggest change (IMO) came after WWII when the benefits of contraception became more accepted! Choice gave women much more control over how many children they would produce, and it led to many more having careers.

 

As many of us are much healthier, and living longer, I see no problem in having children at 30+. But there are still many children born to mothers who are incapable or unwilling to take proper responsibility for their children, yet do nothing to prevent pregnancy.

 

Surely that is a far bigger issue than the age of mothers who have children who are wanted and loved.

Edited October 22, 2012 by Ms Macbeth

[truman]

People are working longer and living longer so they have time to have kids later.

 

You can't beat Nature if you leave it too late....

[LeMaquis]

Another problem is that humanity is basically splitting into two. You can see the early stages of this already, chavs are noticeably shorter and uglier than their betters.

 

Your problem is that you're not in the taller, better-looking camp.