Post-coronavirus birth rates to 'fall' as people stay single longer - Daily Mail

Psychological fallout from the pandemic will cause birth rates to drop, people to stay single for longer and women to sexualise themselves more, experts have predicted.

Experts from the US reviewed 90 studies to help them predict how COVID-19 could shift social behaviours and gender norms — even among those not infected.

In many ways, the researchers noted, 'the pandemic has become a worldwide social experiment' — the results of which have yet to finish playing out.

Unlike past crises, the team noted, the pandemic is not bringing people together and — for the most part — is not fostering an increase in compassion or empathy.

The team noted that the pandemic has heaped more onto the plates of women — who were, even before the pandemic, typically more stressed by the marriage of career and family obligations.

For example, she said, in the realm of academia women scholars already appear to publishing less amid the pandemic — the reverse of their male counterparts.

The roots of this inequality are not only bound up in traditional gender roles, the researchers argued. .

Inequalities exacerbated by the pandemic could lead to a 'large-scale backslide toward "traditional" gender norms' — where women end up dependant on their men as 'breadwinners', pictured — and related shifts further into social conservatism.

In turn, the team suggest, this trend could lead to a 'large-scale backslide toward "traditional" gender norms' — where women end up dependant on their men as 'breadwinners' — and related shifts further into social conservatism.

Furthermore, Professor Haselton said, economic inequality could see many women sexualise themselves more in order to compete with each other for desirable men.

It remains to be seen what impact on young people's development this shift will have, the researchers said

It remains to be seen what impact on young people's developing immune systems and brains this shift will have, the researchers said

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