Wow, I didn't expect our paper on iPhones and fertility to generate this much buzz—thanks for all the feedback! Rather than scattershot replies, here's a compilation of thoughts and new robustness checks. 🧵1/15

No one serious is calling for blanket deregulation of childcare. But the more you look into the industry, the more you see example after example of states having these arbitrary rules that don't make sense but do drive up costs for parents.

I'm happy to have a new piece over @thedispatch, talking about how academia's issues with motherhood interact with their problems with "viewpoint diversity." It's been an open secret for a long time that the Ivory Tower struggles to retain moms through the PhD and early academic career track. Less often acknowledged, however, is that the impact of this is often felt disproportionately by conservative and/or religious moms, who are statistically more likely to have children young, and to have multiple children. (Liberal women are impacted too, of course, but statistically less likely to have kids or have kids early in life). Even if they make it through the PhD process, these women then sometimes get screened out of jobs and/or opposed at the hiring level based on views disfavored in universities, such being pro-life. Right-of-center women therefore often face a one-two punch when they try to make it as academics at secular institutions. First, more likely to become moms, they are more likely to feel the impact of the Ivory Tower's difficulties retaining mothers. Second -- just like conservative men -- they sometimes face hostility on campus due to their political and/or religious beliefs.

This Migros ad possibly represents the pinnacle of the feminist revolution? Throughout history, the daily grind of childcare was primarily done by women, regarded as low status. Here, two affluent males compete to show who is the most loving, caring father. 💕

Of all religious traditions, Latter-day Saints are the most likely to be parents. And it's not even that close. 54% are currently parenting a minor child. The next closest are white evangelicals/Catholics. The lowest rate? Atheists agnostics. ~25% are parents.

Cutting property taxes for seniors is a war on family.

Just a reminder that retirees already get 62 cents of every age-targeted federal dollar. Children and young adults get 10.

Nearly 5.4 million toddlers, preschoolers, and pregnant and postpartum women could lose access to fruits and vegetables provided through the WIC program My @RCPolitics latest with @JoinYoungVoices

For Talent Spotlight Tuesday, meet @susannahpetit, a Fall 2024 Social Mobility Fellow and Young Voices alum who focuses on family policy and workforce issues. 🌟📊 Susannah now serves as Associate Director of the Strengthening Families Initiative at @NotreDame, where she is helping build a new program that connects research with real policy impact. 🏛️✨ Ready to sharpen your writing and grow your voice alongside emerging talent like Susannah? 💡 Click the link in our bio to learn more about our Contributor Program. 🗓️ Apply for our upcoming Fall 2026 cohort by May 31 at 11:59 PM EST. 💻 Link in bio.

You can throw parties as an adult! You are allowed to do this! No one is stopping you.

you will both really like @JesusFerna7026 on today's Plain English! We talk about how we at least need one set of explanations (explanations, plural) to explain why a country would go from TFR of 7 to 2 ... and another set of explanations that explain why some places go from replacement rate to 1 and below bc while economic growth and feminism and contraception can surely explain the first, they don't explain why Korea has gone from 2 to <1 long after it modernized and made contraception easy. for that you need to bring it social and technological phenomena that might be more recent. start here youtu.be/5F7_qa-XLBg?si=UYy5…

Many Christians still support the current administration because it has claimed to be “pro-life.” But the truth is, it's not. Abortion rates are rising, and a truly pro-life vision requires us to care about what families actually need to flourish: access to healthcare, affordable housing, economic stability, and basic human dignity. On all of these fronts, the current administration continues to fail - and Christians who care about life should be willing to say so. @bristenz, director of Women of Welcome, joins us to talk immigration, "whole-life pro-life," and more on 🎙️Holy Post 716 - available everywhere. Share with a friend!

Maya Macguinness exposes the US Government's massive bias towards senior citizens:

Perhaps nobody captured the quiet bond between mothers and their children as well as Mary Cassatt.

The pro-family case for walkability. washingtonexaminer.com/in_fo…

My stance on phone bans in schools is that even if they have absolutely zero measurable effect on outcomes they are still worth doing because we want to habituate students into having real-life conversations and not withdrawing into digital life during lunch periods.

My lab asked pregnant couples to discuss their plans for sharing infant care. After birth, we brought them back to the lab. We discovered that couples do not accurately predict their division of baby care, and parents fare better when dads do more.

The elder care childcare bind is going to be THE story of the next 5-10 years. Already starting. When your parents had you at 35-40, and you had your kids at 40, the convergence of everyone needing you all at once is going to be very tough—women hardest hit.

New newsletter: MODERN FATHERHOOD WOULD BE UNRECOGNIZABLE TO A 1950'S DAD Compared to their Boomer parents, childcare time among Millennial dads has more than doubled. Compared to their Silent Generation grandparents, it’s nearly quadrupled. You will be hard-pressed to find any part of day-to-day modern life that has changed more in the last half-century than the way today’s parents—and fathers, in particular—spend their time. The new American dad is more present and more exhausted—but also, more satisfied with life. What's behind this half-century transformation? Today's piece combines history, economic analysis, and gorgeous charts galore from @AzizSunderji

More graduate schools should be offering assistance to parents! Parental benefit programs, assistance with childcare, etc. could all help ease the strain between academic and fertility goals