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Showing posts from August, 2013

Opting in or Opting Out. Social Policies and the Childbearing and Childrearing Choices of Smart Women

In the last two days, there have been two highly controversial and widely read articles that have explored the choices that women are forced to make about having a career and having children. In an article in the Guardian by Sadhbh Walshe titled, "Should we care that smart women aren't having kids" , women who have achieved academically and in their careers are having low birthrates. Duh! This is based on some new research that is rather controversial. According to Satoshi Kanazawa, a psychologist from London School of Economics "maternal urges drop by 25% with every extra 15 IQ points". He discusses his findings in his new book, The Intelligence Paradox . I am not sure why Kanazawa thinks it is a paradox because the social policies in place for women with children do not provide an incentive for making this choice. On the other hand, the New York Times' Judith Warner wrote an article titled, "The Opt-Out generation wants back in" in which s