46% of men consider a 36-year-old woman "too old" to have a child

A recent YouGov poll in the UK asked the famous question of "the ideal age to have a child". The answers are, how to put it politely, aberrant! Among those questioned, we learn that 46% of men consider that a woman aged 36 to 40 is too old to have a child. You read correctly, we are back in the Middle Ages... Worse still, these gentlemen estimate by 71% that there is, conversely, no problem for a man to become a father in this age. Another study that comes to ring the people who are not concerned by the question.

A child before the age of 30, or nothing!

So YouGov asked a panel of men - and women too, who were the only real people concerned in the end, right? - what would be the perfect age to give birth. According to the respondents, it would be 28 years for a woman and 30 years for a man. We therefore learn that there is an "expiration date" (first news...) according to some, beyond which there is no longer any question of getting pregnant, because women would be "too old": 46% of men and 35% of women think so.

On the other hand, there is no question of putting your sperm on the sidelines... Becoming a father after the age of 30, according to 71% of men and 84% of women, is "normal", not "too old for" (hello the return of the double standard). When this survey was published, the responses on Twitter to the men questioned were not long in coming, between contempt and hilarity...

When we look at the survey more closely, we also realize that this opinion comes from those whose opinion has even less been asked: the elderly. Respondents aged 25 to 44 say the ideal age is around 30, while those over 55 think women should have their first baby at 25, which was the average in 1983 (water has flowed under the bridge since...).

A poll that perpetuates prejudice

The big problem with this YouGov poll is already the very essence of its principle: asking people who are not concerned about motherhood. The study thus further aggravates the sexist and ageist prejudices that women have suffered for centuries. This shows that a "double standard" persists in society, that of women and men with regard to the same subject, here being a parent, and this again in 2021...

On the other hand, it perpetuates the completely erroneous idea that female fertility declines drastically after the age of 35, according to scientific data... which dates back 300 years. According to a study in Denmark, 78% of women between 35 and 40 years old become pregnant in one year compared to 84% of 20-34 year olds. So yes, the fertility rate drops with age, but the difference is not really noticeable.

Strong reactions on social networks

As we told you, responses from Internet users were quick to arrive following the publication of the survey. On the one hand, to criticize the very existence of this (very) sexist question, but also to prove by A + B that eggs do not magically disappear when you blow out your thirty-fifth candle. The testimonies thus express loud and clear: yes there are women between 36 and 40 years old who have had children (if some doubted it...).

As a bonus, this is by no means a concern that needs notice from men or anyone in general. A netizen named Fiona writes: "I was almost 40 when I had my little boy. I'm 44 now, and I would be happy to have another one! I don't understand why anyone would think it's up to him!"

Morality: let women have their bodies as they want! When they want a child, they will do it when they feel like it and when they feel ready. If, on the contrary, it is not a desire that is expressed in them, it is the same thing that concerns only them. As a very great 21st century thinker named Rachel in Friends would say: "no womb, no opinion"!