The number of births in 2022 will fall below 800,000. What kind of countermeasures against the declining birthrate are really necessary now? Kazuma Sato, an associate professor at Takushoku University, said, “Although child-rearing support measures have been implemented in the past, the happiness level of women with children has remained low over the past 20 years. It is on the rise, and the gap between the two is widening.We need a policy that makes it possible to feel the happiness of having children.”
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Has the happiness level of women with children improved?
Currently, the Diet is discussing child-rearing support measures.
The origin of this is Prime Minister Kishida’s “countermeasures against the declining birthrate of a different dimension.” The measures include (1) strengthening economic support such as child allowances, (2) expanding support for after-school child care, sick child care, and postnatal care, and (3) promoting work style reform. increase. It can be said that all of these are extensions of past declining birthrate measures.
Looking at Japan’s past measures against the declining birthrate, the establishment of childcare and nursing care leave systems, the expansion of nursery schools to eliminate waiting lists, the Basic Law for Countermeasures against Declining Birthrate, the Law for Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children, and the Law for Supporting Children and Child-rearing enforcement and various policies are being implemented. These policies are thought to have improved the childcare and working environment.
If so, has the happiness level of women with children improved as well?
As I pointed out in a previous article (“Women with children are less happy”: The simple reason for the accelerated declining birthrate), in Japan women with children are happier than women without children. is also lower. However, if the measures taken so far to address the declining birthrate are effective and the childcare and working environments are improved, it is not surprising that the decline in the degree of happiness associated with having children will decrease.
So what is the actual situation? This time, I would like to introduce the results of examining the changes in the happiness level of married women with children from 2000 to 2018.
Looking ahead to the conclusion, it can be said that the happiness level of Japanese married women with children did not show an improvement trend between 2000 and 2018.
I would like to explain in detail below.
Having children does not make women happy
Before explaining changes in the happiness of married women with children, I would like to briefly look at how the happiness of married women changes depending on whether or not they have children, and what factors exist behind this change.
Chart 1 looks at the average happiness of married women with children and married women without children.（*1）. The data used is the Japanese General Social Survey (JGSS), which is often used in academic research in the social sciences. The analysis target is 8331 married women aged 20 to 89 from 2000 to 2018, and the degree of happiness is measured in five stages from 1 to 5.
As is clear from this figure, married women with children are less happy. If we focus on married women under the age of 50, who are in the child-rearing stage, the decline in happiness is even greater.
The meaning of this figure is simple: ‘Having children does not lead to women’s happiness.’