The Importance Of Fertility In America

Superior Essays
For years now, the overall fertility all around the world has been plunging. For quite a few reasons, people are no longer reproducing at the rate they used to. Jonathan Last, Author of What to Expect When No One’s Expecting; America’s Coming Demographic Disaster explains how religion, women in the workforce, and the industrial revolution lead to an ever declining fertility rate in America.
Religion used to be the structure of not just a family, but a society. In recent years, however, church has become a very small part of people’s busy lives. A paper written by Philip Schwadel states that “Regardless of the reasons for this change, this finding provides evidence that religious identification and religious practice are becoming less tightly coupled among younger generations of Catholics” (Schwadel 125). This conclusion states that the study has found evidence to prove that religion is becoming significantly less important to younger generations. This does not seem important until it is shown that religion actually connects to fertility. Last writes that “Religion helps marriage and marriage helps fertility (Last 87). That means that the decline in religion is in turn greatly affecting the decline in fertility. Many studies have been done attempting to connect religion and fertility rates, and for the most part, there is a very distinct connection. A study done by the University of Cambridge concluded “In accordance
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Humans have entered themselves into a new age. This is an age where religion is no longer the structure of families and women are fighting to give themselves an education and find themselves a career. Family farms are now few and far between due to the amazing industrial revolution. America is far from what is used to be in nearly every aspect imaginable. Jonathan Last was absolutely right when he wrote about why fertility rates have plunged down into a deep, dark

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