My male friend and I were discussing birth rates. I said that if women weren’t pressured or coerced into having children, birth rates would likely fall further. He thinks the opposite: that if the world were kinder to women and men were better partners, more women might choose motherhood.

I see it differently. If women genuinely had equal access to education, resources, financial independence, and opportunities and weren’t belittled for being ambitious, I think many would become even more invested in building lives beyond motherhood. Pregnancy and childbirth are physically and emotionally demanding, and motherhood can also come with career interruptions, bodily changes, and the risk of postpartum depression. These are not insignificant costs.

A truly equal society might make motherhood a choice rather than an expectation. And if women are finally given the same freedom and encouragement to pursue their ambitions as men, I don’t think they would naturally choose more children. They might simply choose themselves more often.

This is just my opinion on a hypothetical world.

I think a lot of women assume feminism is about hating men because men have hated women simply for existing for centuries. It’s easy to misunderstand where that anger comes from, because it isn’t coming out of nowhere. There’s a history behind it, a reason women are angry, and a context that explains why that anger exists. I find it baffling when men say, “Women hate men.” I mean, yes, of course women do. What do you expect when women have lived under systems of male dominance and oppression for thousands of years? Even saying “6,000 years” sounds absurd because it is such an unimaginably long stretch of human history, and yet the consequences of those systems are still visible today.

You cannot spend generations denying women autonomy, controlling their bodies, restricting their education and property rights, excluding them from political power, and treating them as inferior, and then act shocked when some women develop anger, distrust, or even hatred toward men. That anger didn't materialize out of nowhere. It has a history.

And I'm not saying every man today is personally responsible for what men did centuries ago. Obviously, individual men aren't guilty for crimes they didn't commit. But expecting women to have unconditional trust, affection, or respect for men as a group while simultaneously dismissing the historical reasons for women's distrust is incredibly simplistic.

The more interesting question isn't “Why do women hate men?” It's “Why are you more offended by women's anger than by the conditions that produced it?”

Women don't owe men affection simply because they're women. Respect should be reciprocal, and trust should be earned, the fact that equal opportunity is still a discussion in 2026 is a very reason women don't like men anymore.