Antony Gormley's Iron Baby at the Royal Academy

Forty-six countries around the world have shrinking populations, and this number is set to rise to 67 by 2040. Some 60 years after the invention of the contraceptive pill, women are voting powerfully but silently with their wombs.Peter Drucker wrote that the impact of technological innovations often doesnt appear until decades after their invention. This is certainly true of the Pill. A long, heart-wrenching article in the New York Times titled The End of Babies asks whether late capitalism has killed our reproductive instincts. Id argue instead that the revolution of womens rapid rise demands more adaptation from countries, companies and men if we want the human race to continue.

The past half century has seen women flood into education and labour forces around the globe. Women now represent more than 60% of global university graduates from Brazil and Iceland to the United Arab Emirates. Government and corporate policies have struggled to keep pace with the revolution that women (and the men they marry, birth, or work with) have wrought on all our lives. A generation ago, in countries and companies where conciliating work and family was difficult (eg. Japan or Germany), women opted to prioritize family. Now, they prioritize work. And financial independence, freedom and marital choice.

Nowhere is this more glaring than in Asia, where men and the systems that hold them hostage to inflexibly workaholic cultures seem particularly resistant to change. Thats why so many Japanese and South Korean women are refusing to marry, and so many men find themselves involuntarily single. This trend is sweeping through much of Asia. Japanese Prime Minister Abe has made encouraging women to work a top macroeconomic priority. Hes managed to fuel an impressive rise in the labour force participation rate of women (now surpassing the U.S.). But he probably hadnt predicted that the professional emancipation of women would lead them to reject marriage and children. Today a quarter of women between 35 and 40 remain single and the birth rate is at all-time lows. That wasnt the goal.

You may say this is good news if you agree that children are the number one climate change impact on the world. But is it? Fifty years ago, the average woman had five children, a number that has now been halved. In the United States, writes Anna Louie Sussman, the gap between how many children people want and how many they have has widened to a 40-year high. U.S. birth rates just hit a 32-year low, while the percentage of the population over 60 continues to rise. Are we ready for the aging populations, shrinking labour forces and pressures on pensions that are emerging? Surely there is a more human-friendly way to manage the overlapping disruptions of gender shifts, climate change and longevity? One that doesnt leave us childless and increasingly loveless.

Demography is destiny, and the world is looking increasingly unbalanced. Speaking recently at the Global Peter Drucker Forum in Vienna on the Power of Ecosystems, I suggested the health of our human ecosystem depends on a more strategic prioritization of gender issues. A sustainable birthrate, one that keeps national populations stable, is 2.1 children per woman. Few countries are anywhere near that level anymore. The richest countries are well below it, reflecting the lag in adapting to dual income parents and modern womens priorities. While the poorest countries (mostly in Africa) are too far above it, reflecting the lack of education and accessibility to birth control women need to have a real choice. In China, the one-child policy (recently abandoned) has decapitated countless families, created a frightening surplus of men who will never marry, and created a country that will grow old before it grows rich. Our continual underestimation of the revolutionary impact of the rise of women on countries and companies means we arent profiting from the potential miracle of having educated and employed the other half of the human race.

Not to mention our lack of attention on how the rise of women has landed on men both at home and at work. The obvious gusto with which women have entered almost every sphere of professional life has not always been matched by their mates or their bosses reactions. While the 20th century saw the rise of women around the world, the 21st century has seen a growing focus on the impact of that rise on men and masculinity. The male backlash Susan Faludi presciently wrote about 30 years ago, is now being played out politically around the globe as men fear a related loss of power and status and elect macho strongmen defending traditional gender roles. Unless we are able to create a win/ win narrative for both men and women, we are likely to see the sexes separate further. More strategic support for happy unions and families would help.

Some countries have tried to keep pace with the parallel pressures of two good-news trends: more gender-balanced parents and increasing longevity. But they will need to deploy far more care - both childcare and eldercare. While recognizing that men are carers and parents too and increasingly intent on actually investing the role.

Its coming slowly. The spread of shared parental leave is the next big generational adaptation. Sweden led the way, although they had to force initially reluctant men to take parental leave by introducing a use it or lose it system for fathers. The U.K. introduced shared parental leave a couple of years ago, but fewer than 2% of men take it. All OECD countries (with the bizarre exception of the U.S.) offer paid maternity leave, and now half of them also offer significant paternity leave (over two months).

Public policy is a key driver of birth rates. Germany under Minister of Labour and Social Affairs Ursula Van Der Leyden (who has seven children and is the new President-elect of a gender balanced European Commission), has managed to increase its birthrate over the past few years with a range of policies aimed at recognising the changing roles of women. Italys remains rock bottom by ignoring them. Leadership of countries is key both to gender balancing labour forces and empowering parents to conciliate work and family. Doing one without the other takes its toll on demographic sustainability.

Its not all up to national policy. As work becomes more central to both men and womens lives and identities, balancing two jobs, let alone two babies, becomes increasingly complex. That doesnt stop people wanting them. In the MBA classes I taught at HEC business school, 80% of every class of multinational students said they dream of dual career marriages with two children.Their ability to fulfill those dreams will depend, far more than they realize, on the country in which they live and the company for which they work. Young men and women are increasingly attracted to employers with good parental benefits, which is why leading companies, from Goldman Sachs to Google, are announcing shared parental leave policies, to compensate for lagging national systems.

Countries and companies that dont support parents will find they dont have many. When men and women, (as well as a rainbow of non-binary parents and care-givers) are supported in balancing work and families by both countries and companies, expect birth rates to rise (and fall) to near the magic 2.1 number. And economies to be healthier, happier and more sustainable. That doesnt require the end of capitalism, but the true beginning of gender balance at country, company and couple level.

The rest is here:

The Cost Of Underestimating The Rise Of Women: No Babies - Forbes