For starters, a woman’s biological clock is very real. Most studies show similar data: women are most fertile from their mid-twenties to their mid-thirties — after that, fertility declines sharply. It’s easier to get pregnant, stay pregnant, and care for babies (and toddlers) when you’re younger, versus when you’re older. While data backs this up, anecdotal experience does too. I’m no OB/GYN but having birthed four babies myself, I can say with certainty it was much easier to recover from having my first son at 25 then it was to have my last son at 32.

Since the fertility window is so small and the career window, in perspective, is so large, why put off the former, which can’t wait, for the latter, which can? Modern feminism’s laser beam focus on women and careers is largely responsible for this shift, and it ultimately hurts women who actually do want to enjoy motherhood and facilitate careers. A couple years ago, a Pew Research poll found over 60 percent of Americans thought it was best to have a parent home to raise kids for at least their formative years, which is tough to do if a woman has spent over a decade fostering a career, only to feel she wants to (or has to) put that on the back burner to raise children.