America’s declining birthrate has become the hot topic of late as President Biden, senators, and policymakers put forward their plans to alleviate the economic burdens on American families. While economics are an important driver of the decline, their role is only partial as the cultural tide has increasingly turned away from marriage and family. Among young women in their twenties, the New York Times notes an enormous decrease in childbearing from 2007 to 2019, suggesting that many women are having children later in life, and even then are less likely to be having them at all. This should come as no surprise, since more women are pursuing education, travel, and careers than ever before. But women are not impervious to the tug-of-war between fertility and personal enrichment, since they alone are biologically able to bear a child. Instead of focusing exclusively on policy questions, we should attend to the reasons why women delay childbirth regardless of desire.

Recently, two transgender athletes qualified to participate in women’s divisions at the Tokyo Olympics this summer. Though their formal approval by the International Olympic Committee would seem to indicate universal acceptance, athletes and onlookers alike have criticized the decision for what it is: giving unfair advantage to biological males and dissuading women from participating in sports. In one tragic instance, this has spelled early retirement for New Zealand weightlifter Tracey Lambrechs, who previously held significant records in her weight class until they were crushed over a single weekend by Laurel Hubbard, a biological male. This and other examples of female displacement in sports by transgender competitors reflect a distressing trend against women’s equal participation, since some activities require separation on the basis of sex in order to maintain an even playing field. How did we get to a place where some view sex as interchangeable, despite these obvious infringements of women’s privacy and equality?