Procreation strike

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The procreation strike is a political catchphrase . It is understood as a refusal of men to father children. The term became known in particular through the German journalist Meike Dinklage .

According to a 2003 study by the Berlin sociologist Christian Schmitt on behalf of the German Institute for Economic Research , 57.5 percent of men between 30 and 34 years of age were childless in 2002. For women in this age group, the rate was significantly lower at 37.8 percent.

According to a representative survey, the number of men who do not plan to have children rose from 34% in 2003 to 43% in 2006. Among women, the proportion rose from 22% to 23% over the same period. Horst W. Opaschowski , Professor of Educational Science at the University of Hamburg , sees one of the reasons for the men’s refusal to procreate in the fact that in the discussion about the double burden of women in society the role of men in family and society is neglected.

causes

An expert opinion by the Family Commission of the Federal Ministry for Family Affairs gives reasons such as long training periods and maintenance regulations such as child benefit and educational support models such as student loans . That is why young adults in Germany are dependent for much longer than in other parts of the world. The late arrival of independence contributes to the fact that couples find each other late. Young men do have relationships, but they are seldom permanent. A firm bond with the desire to have children therefore usually only emerges after mid-thirties, and the partners in question are usually of the same age. Men also postpone the desire to have children in order to be able to offer the family enough financial security. Schmitt calls this phenomenon the “ male breadwinner principle ” (principle of the male earner). According to the data of the socio-economic panel evaluated by Schmitt, 44.2 percent of men in the birth cohort 1961 to 1970 and 52.3 percent of the birth cohort 1951 to 1960 were living alone, among women in the same age cohorts only 26.1 and 27 respectively , 2 percent. Almost half of the 33- to 42-year-old childless men were without a partner. However, the data could not answer the question of whether the childless people considered reject a long-term partnership and starting a family for career reasons, whether they put self-fulfillment above partnership and the desire to have children, or whether they simply have not found the right partner (or not yet) get answered.

After interviewing twelve childless men, Meike Dinklage sees further reasons in the men’s increasing uncertainty: “ Because they do not want to change their lives. Because they fear social decline. Because they can still become fathers later. Because they lack a positive family image ”and concludes:“ As long as you do not look at the decline in births from this point of view, you will not be able to resolve your contradictions ”and divides the majority of German men into two types:“ those who shy away from responsibility and those who refuse completely ”. Sandra Kegel reports in the FAZ : “ More often than this type of total refuser, Meike Dinklage met those 'later perhaps' men who were simply childless. They do not harbor any heightened pessimism against the world as they did in the eighties, when environmental pollution was used as a justification against offspring, or the consequences of globalization in the nineties. These men put off fatherhood, put off the thought, are not sure whether they really want offspring. "

Masculists see the causes of the procreation strike in the increasing lack of prospects for men, caused by the degeneration of marriage from a protected contract to the simple official registration of a civil partnership, the resulting increasing divorce rates and the behavior-independent, fathers disadvantageous maintenance and contact regulations as a consequence of these divorces and the associated greater and incalculable risk of being mentally and financially impoverished as a pure “ pay father ”.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Young men on the "procreation strike": Why we no longer want to be fathers , in Süddeutsche Zeitung on February 28, 2008
  2. ↑ Michaela Schießl: FAMILY - men on a procreation strike . In: Der Spiegel . No. 13 , 2005 ( online - March 26, 2005 ).
  3. ↑ Survey by the Foundation for Future Issues , accessed on June 3, 2014
  4. ^ Siegfried Keil: Intergenerational Challenges and Potentials Report (short version), Federal Ministry of Family Affairs , February 2012
  5. ↑ Iris Angelika Quander: Monitor Familienforschung, Issue 29 , Federal Family Ministry, November 2012
  6. ↑ a b Christian Schmitt & Ulrike Winkelmann: Who remains childless? Social structural data on childlessness of women and men , German Institute for Economic Research , Discussion Papers 473 , Berlin 2005
  7. ↑ Sandra Kegel: Family - The Insecure Man , FAZ, September 9, 2005