Generation Maybe: Why We’re Having Fewer Children and What It Means For Us All with Camilla Cavendish
Join us for an Enlightenment Evening with award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and former Head of the No. 10 Policy Unit Camilla Cavendish on Thursday 11th February, from 6:00–7:30pm, as we examine a defining question of our time: Why are we having fewer children, and what does it mean for us all?
Across continents, classes, cultures, and religions, birth rates are falling. In Britain, one in five couples now have no children, and almost half of all families have only one. The populations of China, Japan, Russia, and Italy are shrinking.Pronatalists cry that feminism has killed the family, governments throw money at childcare subsidies, and would-be grandparents wring their hands at the apparent selfishness of the young. But the public conversation is in the wrong place.
What is genuinely driving the global baby bust—and what does a world with fewer children mean for our society and economy?
Drawing on the arguments of her new book, Generation Maybe: Why We’re Having Fewer Children and What It Means For Us All, Camilla Cavendish offers a startling blend of data and firsthand reporting to uncover the real roots of the fertility decline. Rather than relying solely on standard economic explanations, the evening will explore the myriad cultural, social, and technological influences at play: from a dating recession and the pressures of modern parenting to infertility struggles, the atomisation of society, and an instinct to copy one another amplified by the smartphone. Looking beyond the culture wars, she will argue for a future that respects the happily childfree while genuinely empowering those who long for children.
Why are so many prospective parents having fewer children than they desire? What can we learn from communities quietly bucking the trend, as well as nations facing rapid population decline? And, having served at the heart of government, what does a former Downing Street policy director believe policymakers still get fundamentally wrong about the baby bust?
Camilla Cavendish is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and policy expert. She writes a weekly OpEd column for the Financial Times, where she is a Contributing Editor, and served as Head of the UK Prime Minister’s Policy Unit under David Cameron. She is a Research Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School, a Non-Executive Director of the UK Department of Health and Social Care, and a crossbench peer. Her previous book, Extra Time: 10 Lessons for an Ageing World, charted the global challenges of longevity. Camilla started her career at McKinsey & Co and holds degrees from Oxford and Harvard.
The event will take place at 23 Great Smith Street, Westminster, from 6:00–7:30pm on Thursday 11th February. Camilla will be in conversation before taking questions from the audience, followed by a book signing. Copies of Generation Maybe will be available for purchase on the evening. Please note this event is for strictly over-18s.