The demographic time bomb ticking—women are not having kids.

Japan has worked it out—women don’t want to salvage their careers for the sake of having a family life. An article published in Business Insider http://www.techinsider.io/how-japan-can-solve-its-sex-problem-2016-1 sighted the country is facing a baby crisis—not many women are having children which is resulting in dangerously low birth rate. By one highly-cited estimation, a full 896 of Japan's towns and villages — or about half the total — are in danger of becoming extinct by 2040, and a disturbing "countdown clock" made by a team of economists is ticking off the seconds until the last Japanese person is born. This type of scenario is a crisis for any country. The irony is if you don't support women working, you end up not having enough kids to support the economy.  Increasingly women are coming under pressure.

Lifestyle choices now mean putting on halt having children or altogether sacrificing the possibility of juggling career and family life. There is too much at risk—long absences from work are not going to take you up the career ladder. Employers and bosses already crippled by the cuts and withdrawal of government support are not going to hire those demanding job security as it is becoming too costly to efficiently manage employees wanting to be given extra benefits.

On the social side of it, you will probably sacrifice plenty for showing preference to get in the comfort zone and minimize the ‘I-come-first,’ bit which gave you the freedom to believe ‘friends matter,’ ‘money can buy happiness,’ or simply be the person ready to do great stuff which distinguish you as ‘eco-friendly,’ ‘savior of humanity,’ ‘kick-ass feminist.’ Freedom allows you to indulge in ideas you are out there to do great service to humanity and the world can do less with superciliously smug feminist power dubbed as ‘yummy mummy,’ ‘millennium mum.’ The wishy-washy world of reality shows like ‘Ladies of London’ and ‘The Real Housewives of New York,’ is just another soap-opera genre that makes us cringe at the worthlessness of mum-power. 

Every woman with children will not fit into the mould of bored housewives with billionaire husbands eager to bankroll money so that they can splash out on expensive clothes, implants and hiring nannies. Most of us are struggling, coping and dealing with day-to-day stresses of how to get it right. We want the best for our children but it is race against time, resources and modern stress to multi-task in order to reach the end goal of successfully rearing and upbringing the future generation.

Dare I question who is out there ready to take up the cause of women eager to give up their ‘I-come-first,’ priorities to stay at home for school runs, make dinner for families, spend their evenings coping with homework. The government, the feminist groups and the media have peddled the savvy, feisty and ultra-modern image of feminism to the point where it is no longer required to give airtime to anyone trying to make a cause for motherhood.

Next time you see the demographics of Islam’s population representing that little peak on the graph to show that the Muslims are multiplying in numbers, try to decipher the real causes of the time-bomb ticking off in the background. Any economic growth and sustainability in the long run will depend on self-reinvention of feminism and where it will be okay to step-off the career ladder to raise children and not get trapped in a guilt-trip.