Denatality: the temptation to put pressure on women

In 2025, France saw more deaths than births. This is only the third year in its history that this has happened. Nevertheless, it clearly demonstrates that France is not immune to a phenomenon that can be seen throughout Europe: the falling birth rate. How can this be explained?

Of course, women's rights play a predominant role, since they are the ones who decide whether or not to have children. Some conservatives might point to this as the major problem. But when you ask them, the desire to have children has not really diminished among French women.

It's more a question of external factors. Already, the housing problem is affecting the younger generations more than ever, forcing them to opt for smaller apartments or houses with less room for children. The standard of living of young professionals is also stagnating, not allowing them to free up as much of their budget for births. And some women are rightly worried about the world they'll be bringing their children into, with ecological crises, armed conflicts, growing inequalities and so on.

So what can we do to maintain a healthy age pyramid? Immigration is part of a way of ensuring that there are more young people than old people, which doesn't please a certain segment of the population.

Some, like President Emmanuel Macron, are turning to the idea of "demographic rearmament"; a warlike discourse that doesn't achieve much, other than to see women as cannons that would project future generations.

Public authorities all over Europe are trying to offer more generous allowances, more vacations and so on to boost the birth rate. So far, the results have been mixed. We mustn't end up in the Chinese situation, where women of childbearing age are called upon to "encourage them to do so". Instead, what if we tried to solve the real problems that are holding families back in France and elsewhere?

Running time: 9min28

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