Do men want kids the way kids want a puppy? This is a suggestion I have heard, repeatedly, from women recently. And the reason they say this? You guessed it – they feel that men have no idea of the reality of how a baby changes your life, and that they don’t really plan to be the one to look after them anyway.There’s been plenty of debate around how The New Statesman’s cover story last week, headlined “Angry Young Women”, showed how much young women differ from men politically. Less mentioned is how it showed young men and women to be divided on the question of children. And this matters because Britain is facing a fertility crisis. In 2024, the average woman in England and Wales had 1.44 children, the lowest level since records began. It prompted Reform UK’s Matt Goodwin to say women need a “biological reality” check.

According to the magazine’s polling, the proportion of young women between 18 and 30 who do not want children was 15 per cent, twice that of young men. For those in relationships, it was three times as many women (12 per cent) as men (4 per cent). This trend is borne out among my friends, generally in their early thirties. For most couples I........

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