Yeah, I kind of did that (only kind of. Because I struggled through an MSc then two years of a career before doing that). Had my first child at 28. Third and probably final child at 31. I still have time to start my career. What I did (3 kids in 3 years) definitely isn’t advisable from a maternal or indeed neonatal health perspective. I made out like a bandit in that gamble. I recovered very well, and my children are without the side effects closely spaced births. Now this seems like the thing I should have done, but even earlier. If a woman wanted to have it all, this seems like the clearly superior strategy. You can peak in your career a lot later than your fertility.
For this to work govt would need to find a way to help support young moms, who would otherwise be paying off student loans while surviving on spouse’s sole income and trying to raise kids. There are possibilities: student loan deferment, more generous child tax credit, “abundance “ policies to lower cost of housing.
"But my obvious-once-you-think-about mechanism implies an extra point of leverage: undermine the norm against students having babies."
Or, undermine the norm that having a lot of education is needed for most people in the labor market.
Or undermine the norm that your career needs to start at age 23, rather than at age 30-35 when your youngest kid starts kindergarten.
Yeah, I kind of did that (only kind of. Because I struggled through an MSc then two years of a career before doing that). Had my first child at 28. Third and probably final child at 31. I still have time to start my career. What I did (3 kids in 3 years) definitely isn’t advisable from a maternal or indeed neonatal health perspective. I made out like a bandit in that gamble. I recovered very well, and my children are without the side effects closely spaced births. Now this seems like the thing I should have done, but even earlier. If a woman wanted to have it all, this seems like the clearly superior strategy. You can peak in your career a lot later than your fertility.
For this to work govt would need to find a way to help support young moms, who would otherwise be paying off student loans while surviving on spouse’s sole income and trying to raise kids. There are possibilities: student loan deferment, more generous child tax credit, “abundance “ policies to lower cost of housing.