Pronatalism

Different Forms of Pronatalism

The promotion of reproduction has taken numerous forms over the last two centuries. Some pronatalist policies have been formulated with the direct intention of promoting childbearing, such those passed in France beginning in 1939. These direct policies may include governmental loans to fund families, and grants to cover birth expenses. Some nations, such as Singapore and Israel, have provided baby bonuses or allowances for children, while other countries, such as the United States, offer child tax exemptions. Child-friendly policies, such as subsidized family housing, free or subsidized childcare, and the construction of playgrounds and family neighborhoods, have also been implemented in different countries, including the United States, throughout the 20th century.

Faced with declining birth rates, some national leaders have become proponents of pronatalism, as U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt did in 1905 when he declared that it was every American's “prime duty… to have their seed after them to inherit the Earth.” These direct efforts in the early and mid-20th century often associated pronatalism with nationalist causes. The most infamous example of nationalist pronatalism is that of Nazi Germany's policies, although France, Romania, and other countries also associated their efforts with the good of the nation.

Other pronatalist efforts may have been launched with no intent to promote reproduction, but have that effect nevertheless. Limiting access to birth control and abortion has been an explicit part of the direct pronatalist policies of some countries, such as Israel. However, in other nations where opposition to birth control and abortion has been religiously motivated, the lack of access has had an indirectly pronatalist effect. These indirect efforts also include more subtle cultural cues that promote families and motherhood. Idealizations of motherhood have been used in many different contexts to bolster direct pronatalist policies and indirect constructions of women as reproducers and mothers. When feminist scholars began to speak out against the social pressure to bear children in the 1970s, they argued that when motherhood and childbearing are naturalized and cast as central features of female identity, those societies create a pronatalist ideal of womanhood.

Social and cultural messages regarding sex roles, family norms, and even feminism, according to Judith Blake, carried implicit and explicit endorsements of women's purported responsibility to reproduce. The ideal of the nuclear family or traditional family with its stay-at-home mother, suburban home, and at least two children was enshrined with the rise of television after World War II. The pull of this ideal continues in the United States and elsewhere as more women enter the workforce and face the challenges of creating a work-life balance.

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