Almost 40% of Russian women refuse to give birth due to financial problems: “The situation is not very positive”

Experts said that government support and conversations about family can increase the birth rate

VTsIOM interviewed Russian women of reproductive age who have no plans to have children in the next 5 years about the reasons for this decision. The answers surprised sociologists. They do not plan to have children in the near future most often due to their poor financial situation and living conditions—almost 40% of respondents reported this. The second most common answer was “Due to the unstable political situation” – 38%. Another 37% of women said that they already have a child or children.

The results of a public opinion poll among an audience of women of fertile age (18-45 years) were presented by VTsIOM General Director Konstantin Abramov. The question was posed exactly like this: “If you don’t plan to have children for 5 years, then why?”

The main obstacle to childbearing turned out to be “commercialism”: a difficult financial situation, poor living conditions. This is how women identified the “main barrier” in the amount of more than 39 percent. “There is no stability in life, a negative political situation” is the second most popular answer among those who do not intend to give birth, 38%. And the third most popular answer was completely unexpected: the woman already has a child or children, she doesn’t need any more. 37% of the sample think so. Further, 36% of fertile women referred to the “old-parous” age, another 18% admitted that there were health restrictions.

As a result, Abramov called the “situation in the heads” of women “not very positive.” And he added that the situation, apparently, “does not lead to us having a demographic explosion in the near future.”

The problem of demography in the Russian Federation today is undoubtedly one of the most pressing social issues. The battles around the proposal to limit the sale of drugs for medical abortion have just died down. According to surveys, such measures are tended to be supported by men (51%), people with incomplete secondary education (64%), rural residents (63%), residents of the North Caucasus (65%) and Far Eastern (57%) federal districts. State regulation of abortion pills was opposed by women (43%), young people under 25 (62%), residents of both capitals (49%), active consumers, Internet users (46%), as well as those who do not have children (48%). ).

At the ongoing Eastern Economic Forum, the following figures were announced: 78% of residents of the Far Eastern District are ready to raise more than one child. Another 37% even dream of having many children. Experts saw in the record love of children the consequences of local social programs such as the “Far Eastern hectare”. Or writing off 50% of your mortgage debt with the birth of your third child. Or “a million for the third child,” such a program works in Primorye, and with this money, again, you can pay off the mortgage. In general, the topics of abortion, low birth rates, and large families traditionally split society, almost always causing polarized opinions.

– From a scientific point of view, the ongoing social breakdowns are of great interest. This is also a move away from the child-centric family model, when parents need to “raise their children,” and everything else—career, other social roles and hobbies—is secondary. And the transition to a nuclear family, in which both parents have their own personal aspirations and interests. As a result, they do not save an unsuccessful marriage “for the sake of the children.” Women do this too, which is why there is a feeling in society that women are “ruining marriages.” And a revision of traditional gender roles in the family, and a departure from the authoritarian model of upbringing, a new type of parent-child relationship for the country. The collapse of communalism was when grandmothers used to “help”, in fact, replacing parents in their educational and economic role, but now they stopped…

But it is not all that bad. A 2021 survey showed that 65% of school graduates and first-year university students, a sample of 18-24, were focused on home and family. And they target children too, both genders. I work a lot with teenagers and I can confirm that their aspirations are quite traditional and without any advertising of the family. But young people are more rational than past generations. And they understand that a family needs money, children need money. There is also a new trend – women 25+ have begun to “calculate maternity leave.” For a working woman, maternity leave is a period of low income, because payments from the state cannot exceed the “ceiling” of 33 thousand rubles, regardless of the woman’s previous earnings. There is a fear of falling into economic dependence on a husband, so women began to hold on to their premarital property more. Even a new proverb was born: “A wife is known in trouble, and a husband is on maternity leave.”

“It’s strange that the problem is seen “in the woman’s head,” comments family psychologist Maryana Razumovskaya. — In our country, about 80% of children are born in marriage—wouldn’t a sociologist know? And this means that the decision about whether a child will appear or not in the coming years is made by the family. Will people be able to afford childbirth, maternity leave and raising children or not, including the period of a woman’s incapacity for work? But it can be long-term, the child is not always born healthy and the mother does not recover quickly in all cases either. Families assess risks. In part, we also have “Western” tendencies to preserve our usual way of life, but there are few such people. It seems to me that one of the main reasons for the low birth rate may be the belief that children and family are “women’s business” and responsibility. In the heads of deputies and other government officials this is still the case. For some reason, even scientists do not mention men as equal parents.