Germany's birthrate hits historic low
A recent Guardian articled details Germany's ongoing struggles with its declining birthrate. With an already aging population and a birthrate which has just hit an all-time low, sinking below World War Two numbers, Germany must find a solution to this crucial issue. The root of the problem could very well lie in the state's approach to women and, more specifically, working women.
“People will always have children, whatever.”
Konrad Adenauer
The reality of numbers
- Last year, 651 000 babies were born in Germany, 4.5% less than during the previous year.
- For every 1000 citizens, 8.2 children were born as opposed to 9.3 children per 1000 citizens in 2000.
- With 10 in 1000 citizens dying each year, Germany is nowhere near the replacement rate.
- Notwithstanding a spike in 2007, the number of births in Germany has been declining since the 70s.
- Germany has the lowest birthrate in Europe.
- Children only account for 13.6% of the overall population, the second lowest percentage worldwide for countries with populations over 40 million.
The hypothetical explanations
- Kristin Schröder, Germany’s family minister, stipulated that the birthrate is low because there are few women of child-bearing age.
- She also explained that having children asked for a lot of courage and that in a difficult economic context, many Germans chose not to have a child.
- Another possibility put forth by Schröder is that women are not finding the right husband.
- Other causes have been cited for the declining birthrate and they place more of the responsibility on the German state.
- Katya Tichomirowa, a family policy expert, blamed the country’s failure to see men and women as equals within in a couple.
- She exhorted Germany to support “the career development of both parents, enabling both to take part in child care.”
- Silke Schmidt, a 39 year-old academic explained that many measures that would help families have children were lacking.
- Schools finish too early for part-time jobs, employers are not keen on the idea of motherhood and childcare facilities are poor.
- The emergence of the derogatory term Rabenmütter, “raven mothers”, for women combining children with a career epitomizes the depth of the problem.
Solutions, please?
- As budget cuts become a necessity, Roland Koch, prime minister of the state of Hesse, is calling for a cut in family spending which would include doing away with guaranteed childcare facilities for children under the age of three.
- Experts have declared that this would quell any chance of the country’s birthrate increasing.
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Comments
Marton wrote on 15.07.2010 11:08:18:
Love the website
Some thoughts about this article, since I live in Germany...
Many of the problems mentioned are accurate. Roland Koch, in Hessen, may be a \"Christian\" Democrat, but he sure loves the dough rather than the family. But let us begin with that: If the government was genuinely interested in getting the birthrate up, it would do some research. But the powers that be are not really interested. Let\'s face it, the corporate and political sectors are interested in power and money and what is really happening in the real world of middle and lower class families is irrelevant once the elections are over. As a journalist, I have always enjoyed watching the fake empathy of these people. That is point number one. Change from the top. and to solve that problem, all those pols, CEOs and corporate consultant will have to pull the silver spoons out of their mouths and cross the tracks for a while.
It\'s not easy having kids, it\'s expensive, you don\'t have time for yourself as a parent, vacationing is difficult, you have to deal with a lot of paperwork, you are constantly sick because the kids drag home viruses, then there are the problems with school, with kids wanting designer jeans, etc… they are real, if you don\'t have the money… And now the government led by Merkel (childless) and Westerwelle (childless) are telling us to tighten our belts even more…. while the banks had money THROWN at them, and Josef Ackermann continues to rake in the cash he really does not need. No, there is no confidence there that if you have a family, you will have the backing from the political infrastructure. The German governments have NOT been family friendly. They don\'t give a damn, let us be honest.
We need more tax breaks for families (though this is a problem on another level I will mention below). We need day-long school. For the moment, school is mornings only and then someone has to do the homework with the kids and keep them occupied. A working family can only do that if there is a nanny to pay for the kids, and that is not very good rearing, is it? But the rich can do it, so they think everyone can. They can\'t, ok? Sure there are part time jobs, but under what conditions.... Here where I live, there are bakeries and supermarkets offering part-time work. I speak to some of the workers.... managers are GHASTLY, and I have seen them at work. These managers need training in being humane. Not EVERYONE in our society can have a university degree, our economic structures demand unskilled labor. But let us learn to treat these people well.
Here in the village I live in, everything was done for the AUTOMOBILE: large streets, where they can go really fast, no red lights, etc... But for kids: hardly anything. The villages are dying because the automobile has become the yardstick for wellbeing. Only the Greens are really getting stuff done. But the struggle for a red light to slow traffic on a road that cuts the village in two and is often used as a deviation from the Autobahn is in vain, the mayor, another Christian Democrat, is simply waiting for some kids to be run over, I guess.
Solidarity…
OK, now some more personal notes and a social note: A lot of moms I know, meet, overhear, complain about how hard it is to have kids. A lot of dads I know mumble occasionally about the death of the marriage once the kids came. Seldom is there much joy there. That is really bad publicity. But there is also the issue of an individualized society.... Everyone has a house a care a playground in the garden... great for the economy, lousy for the community... Also, socially, I must confess that the Germans I have experienced tend to be cold with each other. Non-kid families eye the kid-families with suspicion, because they are \"leeches\", and kid-families get envious of the freedoms of non-kid families.... It\'s an odd thing, but there is a great deal of social envy, so families are increasingly isolated. This is the extension and ultimate goal of the industrial revolution and the destruction of the nuclear family... and the community. Even the 19th-c tenements were better than some of the single-family house settlements today.
This doesn\'t have to be this way… Perhaps Germans could go and look at countries where there are larger families…
Finally, let me touch on a very broad subject…. Children are the survival of a society. They used to be instrumentalized by the Church. In Germany, in the 30s, making kids was a political vote cast for the Führer... Then.... I remember as a child how children were seen but not heard in German public places in the 60s… and I was from a noisy family, we were always being shushed. Then the pendulum swung the other way, and having kids became natural again. Breastfeeding as well (once those idiot doctors in the pay of Nestlé were finally sent packing). Then it was \"Make way for the big family\"… Now the pendulum has gone the other way again.... I thought the recession would be good for the birthrates, but I was wrong. It\'s something to think about.
Finaly suggestions to improve the situation: A campaign against watching TV. Promote the Internet as a work tool, not a game. A 300% tax on any new gadget that comes out 6 months after a similar gadget has been manufactured and marketed (our society is going gadget crazy, we have no time for children anymore, and our children are being turned into gadget zombies) Longer school hours. Teach arts in schools seriously (music, drawing, sculpture) , promote part-time work. Build parks with nice cafés and play areas. Reduce working times to 30 hours. Market solidarity as a really beneficial quality… etc… I have many ideas, but maybe they are not conventional enough. I am a Luddite of sorts, but that\'s ok.
It\'s impossible? OK, but it\'s a suggestion.
Marton
Eva wrote on 29.08.2010 17:39:43:
I left Germany after I had my first child, because there was no child care in my small hometown and I could not go back to work, that was 24 years ago. Also single women were very much discriminated against. Also the pay for women doing the same work as men was much lower at my time.