Across the OECD, fertility rates tend to be higher where men and women can more easily balance work and family life. That is no coincidence.
When it comes to New Zealand’s low birth rate, the numbers don’t lie. New Zealand’s birth rate is below replacement level and our population in ageing. More people are living longer, and there are fewer young people to replace them in the workforce.
But behind these numbers are choices shaped by how we value care, how we treat parents and how we share responsibilities between women and men. At its heart, this isn’t a fertility crisis – it’s a fairness crisis.
As the evidence shows, fairness (and inclusion) is good for productivity and for the economy as a whole.
As labour market participation has risen for women, so too have household incomes and living standards. Across developed economies, this shift has often been accompanied by smaller families. With more women pursuing education and careers, decisions around if and when to have children increasingly reflect genuine choice, rather than constraint. However, when the structures around care and work remain unequal, these choices can feel far from free.
The parenthood penalty
Over the past few decades, New Zealand has made real progress towards gender equality. More women are in higher education, and the workforce, than ever before. But these gains have not been matched by an equal sharing of care. Women still carry most of the responsibility for childcare and domestic work, and as a consequence, the rewards of equality are uneven – and the costs fall largely on them.
After having a child, women’s earnings drop sharply. Many reduce their paid hours, shift into lower-paid roles, or leave the workforce entirely. The result is a lifelong gap – not just in income, but in savings and superannuation balances as well.
Our recent research shows how deeply this imbalance runs. Kiwi mothers continue to do more unpaid work than fathers – around an hour more each day on housework alone, alongside greater responsibility for childcare. Mothers typically take around a year away from paid work – combining paid and unpaid leave. Fathers, meanwhile, take very short periods of leave: about three-quarters take two weeks or less, and fewer than 1% use paid parental leave.
The same research found that fathers are more likely than mothers to see this division of work as fair. This gap in perception matters. When inequality feels normal, it becomes invisible – and invisible barriers are the hardest to break.
Men, by contrast, experience little or no earnings loss when they become fathers. The “parenthood penalty” is borne almost entirely by women. Until that imbalance changes, having children will continue to look like a financial risk for couples – and many will decide not to take it.
The missing half of the equation: men
Too often, low birth rates are framed as a women’s problem. But reproduction and caregiving are joint projects.
When men take an equal role in parenting and household work, women stay more attached to paid employment, career interruptions shrink, and both partners report higher wellbeing. Research from the UK shows that fathers’ involvement in childcare is linked with better work-life balance and lower anxiety for mothers, while fathers reported higher enjoyment and social satisfaction.
Across the OECD, fertility rates tend to be higher where men and women can more easily balance work and family life. That is no coincidence. Fathers who take parental leave, employers who normalise flexibility for men as well as women, and governments that invest in affordable childcare all contribute to stronger families and more resilient labour markets.
Encouraging men to play a full part in care is not only fair – it is economically smart. But we also need to recognise that family life in New Zealand is not one-size-fits-all. We have diverse parents and diverse families to consider; we have solo parents, stepparents, whāngai parents and the full range of rainbow parents, all of whom need to be considered in policy design.
Policy can make a difference
This is not a private issue for families to solve on their own. Public policy can ease the trade-offs that discourage people from having children.
Paid parental leave for both parents is critical. New Zealand’s current system provides 26 weeks for the primary caregiver, with little uptake by fathers. There is the potential to create, for example, a non-transferrable “daddy quota” – as in Iceland – to encourage shared care and reduce the parenthood penalty for women.
Affordable childcare is another essential lever. New Zealand has one of the highest out-of-pocket childcare costs in the OECD. Countries that subsidise childcare see higher maternal workforce participation. Policies that reduce barriers to childcare would make it easier for both parents to stay connected to work.
Flexible work policies and workplace culture complement these measures. When workplaces make flexibility and balance the norm for everyone, they keep more skilled people in work and strengthen the economy.
Not a women’s problem – a collective one
The fertility trends are clear – but they don’t tell the whole story, either. If we frame the birth-rate debate only in terms of numbers, we risk missing its human core. Women are not vessels for national survival, and men are not bystanders. Women now have genuine choice, and parenthood is a shared, valued and vital social role.
Many women today are choosing smaller families – or choosing not to have children at all – and we must acknowledge that their choice sits within a broader social context. A country that wants more children must first become a place where women and men can share care, work. and opportunity without sacrificing their futures. Because fairness is not just the right thing to do – it’s good economics.
