In response to Belinda Brown: Families pay a heavy price for the decline of the male provider, Rick Bradford wrote:
Following the recent BBC debacle about the ‘gender pay gap’, and all large companies being obliged to do likewise shortly, it is inevitable that the pressure to equalise men’s and women’s pay will intensify. So far men’s work ethic has stood up remarkably well, but perhaps it won’t when they see women being gifted the same pay while being clearly less deserving (e.g., forcing equal pay after extended maternity leave or part time working). The effect of hypergamy in this situation will be to drive down marriage rates amongst the higher socioeconomic classes, as it has already done in the lower. Fewer men being married will lead to still further reduction in male effort (which is known to be enhanced by marriage).
The feminist/progressive lobby want to achieve equal pay and equal childcare by men and women. But this will be undermined by declining marriage and continuing decline in the birth rate for UK born women. This will be accompanied by a declining economy – inevitably since men are the drivers of the economy and equalising pay will be achieved primarily at the cost of reduced male effort, not increased female effort.
