Gen Z Is Rewriting the Narrative: Why International Women’s Day Should Include Motherhood

Commentary

Population decline is no longer hypothetical.

Falling birth rates are reshaping societies worldwide. According to the United Nations, more than half of all countries now have fertility rates below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman. Italy’s rate is about 1.2, South Korea’s has dropped to 0.7, and the United States’ has fallen to 1.6. Even in parts of Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East, young people are delaying or forgoing children because of economic pressures. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, warns that shrinking workforces and aging populations threaten long-term economic stability.

Governments have responded with tax credits, child allowances, subsidized child care, and extended parental leave—yet fertility rates remain stubbornly low. Economic incentives alone aren’t enough.

Choosing parenthood, especially motherhood, often carries real penalties. Across OECD countries, mothers earn less than nonparents and take career breaks that reduce retirement security, and, in some parts of the world, choosing motherhood can even cost women their freedom—limiting their work, their right to own property, or their right to live independently.

Despite these variables, young adults across North America, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America consistently say family is central to their life goals. Surveys of more than 10,000 adults ages 18–34 in 10 countries found that family often outranks wealth as a measure of success.

Yet for women who desire motherhood, it gets more personal. They struggle with how to make it work financially while building a career, and with rising housing costs, job insecurity, student debt, and workplaces that reward uninterrupted labor, the choice to have children can feel like a costly sacrifice.

Gen Z—the first generation coming of age globally—refuses to choose between caregiving and a career; instead, they want both autonomy and family.

Gen Z influencer Morgan Harper Nichols declared, “We’re redefining what success looks like—not as career or family, but as purpose that embraces both.”

International Women’s Day, with roots in early labor movements, is recognized annually on March 8 by the United Nations and rightly celebrates women’s equality—political, economic, and legal. These victories are essential. In addition, more than 100 countries also celebrate Mother’s Day, a near-universal recognition of female caregiving. Across the world, women do most unpaid care work—from raising children to supporting elderly relatives. UN Women estimates that if this work were paid, it would be worth $10 trillion annually. In the United States alone, mothers perform an average of 50 hours of unpaid work per week, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Yet motherhood, as a foundation of society, is not mentioned in formal international gender frameworks, which tend to focus mainly on rights. When motherhood is left out, female empowerment feels incomplete.

Adding motherhood to International Women’s Day would not:

• Require women to have children
• Diminish women without children
• Undermine leadership or entrepreneurship

It would affirm that choosing to parent is supported and respected—equal in value to any career or public achievement.

Policy alone can’t fix declining birth rates if society doesn’t value caregiving.

Recognition is powerful. When caregiving is acknowledged and labor is valued, women feel respected. Across the globe, nations depend on parents to raise future workers, innovators, and citizens. Societies that support the choice to have children—and respect it—are stronger culturally and economically.

The next step for International Women’s Day—already happening with Gen Z—is to show that women’s achievements and motherhood do not oppose each other but work together to strengthen society.

As Gen Z climate and social activist Alexandria Villaseñor explains:

“We want worlds worth living in—worlds where work and care enrich each other, not where one cancels out the other.”

Anyone who assumes Gen Z will follow existing ideas about work, family, or gender is sadly mistaken. This generation is already shaping the future—they are integrating career, parenting, and motherhood—and insisting that society recognize these choices by supporting these options.

The next chapter on women, careers, and motherhood will not be defined by those clinging to old ways. It will be redefined by Gen Z, who insist that women can thrive as leaders, innovators, and mothers alike.

Views expressed in this article are the opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.