{"id":5802,"date":"2026-08-23T08:08:52","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T08:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5802"},"modified":"2026-08-23T08:08:52","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T08:08:52","slug":"women-want-dads-not-duds-a-nobel-winning-historian-has-a-theory-for-falling-birthrates-but-the-economics-arent-so-straightforward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5802","title":{"rendered":"Women want \u2018dads,\u2019 not \u2018duds\u2019: A Nobel-winning historian has a theory for falling birthrates, but the economics aren\u2019t so straightforward"},"content":{"rendered":"
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She adds: \u201cThe more that men can credibly signal they will be dependable \u2018dads\u2019 and not disappointing \u2018duds,\u2019 the more investment in women\u2019s education and careers, and the higher will be the birthrate in the face of greater female agency.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Nvidia customers notified about AI-related price hikes above 15%<\/a><\/p>\n

The theory is neat, and subject to criticism as a result. Some point out that birthrates have continued to fall despite household work being carried out more equitably. In the decade between 2026 and from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the hours men spend on household activities have fractionally increased, while the hours carried out by women have slightly decreased. Birthrates have still continued to decline. Other critics suggest the data used in the research is inconsistent, with skeptics also questioning what \u201cdependability\u201d in dads entails.<\/p>\n

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But Goldin doesn\u2019t claim to have all the solutions to the questions her work raises. \u201cWhen women did not have any choice, [having children] is what they did,\u201d she tells Fortune<\/em>. \u201cBut now they are given a choice.\u201d So do men, she adds: How to demonstrate whether they are a dud or a dad. But \u201cwe don\u2019t really know the answer [to] what sort of commitment mechanisms [men] have,\u201d Goldin says.<\/p>\n

Goldin, perhaps attuned to this dynamic because of her research, says she can spot anecdotal indicators among her students: \u201cI can pretty much tell who the good dads are.\u00a0There\u2019s no question\u2014they are the individuals who are clearly going to share and [are] going to engage in what I would call couple equity.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCouple equity doesn\u2019t mean equality\u2014it doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re doing exactly the same things \u2026 but it does mean that each of them has decided that they\u2019re willing to give up a certain amount of income and prestige to raise a child or two, or three together.\u201d<\/p>\n

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No new phenomenon<\/h2>\n

While Goldin\u2019s methodology can be debated (and indeed, the historian is open to feedback), the research is nevertheless making waves. On a superficial level, Google searches for Goldin\u2019s name have increased 400% over the past year compared to a year prior. More broadly, the topic of birthrates is ascending the political agenda\u2014President Trump even suggested he\u2019d be known as the \u201cfertilization president\u201d courtesy of policies aimed at supporting birthrates, such as increasing access to IVF.<\/p>\n

So why the sudden focus? The trends driving Goldin\u2019s formula are nothing new: Women have been investing in their education in increasing numbers over the past 50 years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics\u2019 (BLS) latest reporting, for the year 2024, found that among recent high school graduates ages 16 to 24, 69.5% of women were enrolled in college, and 55.4% of men had done the same. Meanwhile, from 50 years prior shows that in 1974, 45.87% of 14 to 24-year-olds enrolled in college were women.<\/p>\n

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In addition to women wanting to build careers for their enjoyment and fulfillment, there\u2019s also been an increasing economic need for them to do so. Brookings found in a 2020 study that without women\u2019s earnings, middle-income households would have seen virtually no income growth between 1979 and 2018.<\/p>\n

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Myra Strober, a labor economist and Professor Emerita at the School of Education at Stanford University, sees an answer both simpler and broader than the data from the past half-century suggests: The need for children has shifted from the household level to the societal. <\/p>\n

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\u201cHistorically, people had children because they needed them,\u201d Strober tells Fortune<\/em>. \u201cIn an agricultural economy, you needed children to do the work \u2026 as agriculture has become a less and less important part of our economy, people don\u2019t need children the way they did before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd people had lots of children because the infant mortality rate was high. You couldn\u2019t be assured that the children you had would live to adulthood, and so you better ensure you have plenty of children to help around the farm. Once agriculture declines and the infant mortality rate goes way down \u2026 people don\u2019t need children in the way that they did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Strober founded the famous Stanford course \u201cWomen and Work\u201d (later renamed \u201cWork and Family\u201d), where she met student Abby Davisson, now an entrepreneur and consultant. The pair co-authored their book \u2018Money and Love\u2019<\/em> in 2023, which is now required course reading at Stanford\u2019s Graduate School of Business.<\/p>\n

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At the end of the duo\u2019s book, they examine the extent to which public policy trickles down into household decision-making, \u201cyet we have not changed our policies around \u2026 work expectation or cultural norms.\u00a0It\u2019s much easier to change policy than it is to change culture,\u201d Davisson tells Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a cultural conversation piece that\u2019s tricky here, even if we have the best geopolitical policies and \u2026. everyone holds hands and agrees on that, if the culture\u2014the expectations for parents do not change, if the expense for raising children does not change\u2014I don\u2019t see how we\u2019re going to see different behaviour at the individual level, because it\u2019s not just this one piece of policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe should be thinking about the economy as a whole and public policy rather than bedroom policy,\u201d Strober echoed.<\/p>\n

An economic boon<\/h2>\n

Whether or not equity in partnerships is the cause of declining birth rates, Goldin, Strober, and Davisson are united in advocating for it\u2014the latter duo even includes checklists to prompt conversations between couples in their book. But that doesn\u2019t mean equity is no longer a significant economic concern.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you begin with the thought that you have a distribution among women and men of talent and creativity, why would you not want to use both distributions and take the top of each to run your economy and your society?\u201d Strober poses. \u201cIn terms of economic well-being, social well-being, use of resources, you want to look equally among men and women.\u201d <\/p>\n

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Davisson, mom to two boys, chimes: \u201cI really value the fact that my children see their father in food preparation mode all the time\u2014he\u2019s the family chef\u2014like they\u2019re going to grow up thinking that that is totally normal. The value is both for the workplace and for the citizens in that workplace.\u201d <\/p>\n

Read more $25 billion CEO says one-hour interviews are a waste of time\u2014he puts candidates through six hours of tests and wants them to order wine at lunch<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claudia Goldin, Myra Strober and Abby Davisson on declining birthrates and the impact of partnerships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[473],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-population"],"yoast_head":"\nWomen want \u2018dads,\u2019 not \u2018duds\u2019: A Nobel-winning historian has a theory for falling birthrates, but the economics aren\u2019t so straightforward - Cross Country Moving Team<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crosscountrymovingteams.com\/?p=5802\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Women want \u2018dads,\u2019 not \u2018duds\u2019: A Nobel-winning historian has a theory for falling birthrates, but the economics aren\u2019t so straightforward - 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