Regarding the April 28 "Have your say" letters responding to "Women, know your place": The attitude that much of society still has toward women is what's causing the problem. People need to start realizing that women as well as men deserve the choice of both a career and a family. Why should many women be made to feel that they must give up the former to obtain the latter when men do not?
Workplaces need to become more family friendly — not just to support and make it easier for working women to have children, but also to encourage men to balance work and family life. Marriage and parenthood should be viewed as an equal partnership with each partner doing his or her fair share of housework and child care. Anyway, it's much better for children to spend quality time with both parents.
Women are not the problem — it's the patriarchal society that they live in, limiting their choices and viewing them as second-class citizens. This kind of society hurts not just women, but men too. A big change in attitudes is needed for society to become a more equal and therefore encouraging environment for more women to choose to have children. However, it seems that many find it far easier to blame women, feminism, etc. rather than admit and address the real problem. So who knows how long it will take or how low the birthrate has to fall before people wake up?