All 29-year-olds in France will receive a letter from the government telling them to start to think about having children – but how will this affect modern women? Mirror writer Niamh Kirk shares her thoughts…
Are we actually living in the Handmaid’s Tale? Twenty-nine year olds are being urged to hurry up and procreate and it’s not sitting right with me.
France has sent its young citizens a not-too-casual reminder to start having babies. Every 29 year old in France, both male and female, will receive a letter encouraging them to think about having children in a strategy to boost the country’s birth rate which has reportedly fallen to around 1.56 children per woman – the lowest level it’s been since the First World War and well below the 2.1 replacement rate. But how many 29-year-old men and women navigating modern society in a cost of living crisis are even position to get pregnant?
Next summer I will turn 29. I will most likely still be living in a six-bed houseshare in London because, let’s face it, there’s no way anyone can foot the rent for a one bed, let along a two bed place right now. The rent already devours much of my salary, and I am also still chipping away at two student loans, one for an undergrad course and one for a masters – thanks to a cack-handed system where the interest charged is through the roof. And don’t even get me started on pensions.
Every day brings fresh reports of mass redundancies, jobs are sparse and competition is fierce. The influence of AI is already being felt on the job market. Getting a mortgage is out of the question so how I could pay for a baby on top is beyond me.
So if I were to recieve a letter from the government telling me to ‘get on with it’ I would be furious. And what about those women who are chosing not to have children? Or those who can’t? What about women who are fleeing violent situations, or those who are having to start all over again? How would they feel receiving such letter. What makes this whole situation even more ludicrous that this initiative comes from President Emmanuel Macron, who doesn’t have children – the irony is not lost on me.
There’s also the dire state of the dating world as well, with more and more people in the singles market, what if women haven’t found a suitable partner to have a baby with yet?
The UK’s fertility rate is even lower than France’s at 1.4. We can blame it on many factors – soaring costs of living, anxiety over the enviroment, or just simply because women are just having children later in life. The Times reported that in 2025, there were twice as many women giving birth over 40 as there were teenagers becoming mothers. We also hit an all time high with the new average age of a mother being 31, a number I feel is a little more digestable.
I don’t agree with a ‘gentle’ nudge, why not address the socioeconomic reasons why parenthood feels unattainable for many women in their late 20’s, why can’t the government help out instead?
They could start by helping first time buyers out so they can have somewhere to rasie a child, or stop hiking up rail fairs and national insurance so we have cash to put aside for when the time comes. Despite earnings rising by 5% last year compared with 2024, the cost of renting now eats up 44% of the average wage, up from 40% five years ago. While the average age of a first time buyer is now 33.
And don’t even get me started on the cost of childcare. Coram Family and Childcare’s latest annual survey found that a full-time nursery place for a two-year-old in England now costs over £14,000 a year. For many families, that is simply unsustainable.
Yes, the letter will also be sent to men, but really let’s face it, it’s aimed at women and reminding them that their fertility is declining. The ‘initiative’ in plain terms is a man, telling a woman, how to live their life – and have we all watched Handmaid’s Tale? It’s all a little bit scary.
So, I think I speak for quite a few women when I say, if I ever received this letter, it would be ripped up and not given a second thought, and it probably means when the time comes, if it ever does, I will be classed as a ‘geriatric’ mother, but who really cares.
