What The Declining U.S. Birth Rate Says About American Motherhood

“We’re at a cultural moment where we need to be looking at this closely because COVID has highlighted the difficulty,” Jodi Vandenberg-Daves said.

By Stephanie Kim
What The Declining U.S. Birth Rate Says About American Motherhood
Chicago parent Rosa Esquivel, right, helps her 10-year-old daughter Veronica Esquivel, who attends Andrew Jackson Elementary School, with her homework after virtual school hours, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021, at their residence in the Pilsen neighborhood. Shafkat Anowar / AP Photo
What The Declining U.S. Birth Rate Says About American Motherhood
Chicago parent Rosa Esquivel, right, helps her 10-year-old daughter Veronica Esquivel, who attends Andrew Jackson Elementary School, with her homework after virtual school hours, Wednesday, Feb. 10, 2021, at their residence in the Pilsen neighborhood. Shafkat Anowar / AP Photo

What The Declining U.S. Birth Rate Says About American Motherhood

“We’re at a cultural moment where we need to be looking at this closely because COVID has highlighted the difficulty,” Jodi Vandenberg-Daves said.

By Stephanie Kim
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The U.S. birth rate dropped again in 2020 and the pandemic might be speeding up the decline, according to the latest federal data. Last year marked the sixth consecutive year the number of births has fallen in the country.

Reset talks to a historian and opens the phones to listeners to discuss why more women in the U.S. are having fewer children, delaying motherhood or deciding not to have children at all.

GUEST: Jodi Vandenberg-Daves, historian and professor of women’s, gender and sexuality studies at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse; author of Modern Motherhood: An American History