And now for something completely different...

[Jester]

I will challenge you on one thing -- if the husbands change the channel because they're threatened by the message, what makes you think they'll allow the women to attend the educational groups you envision. And, in a male dominated society, if you do educate the women, what makes you think it will make any difference -- that the men, wanting large families, will not force them on the women?

It's not easy. Resistance to women's rights, both by most men and by many women, is one of the most serious obstacles in getting birth rates down. In some societies, it may be an uphill struggle to get educational groups going. But people tend to have at least some notion that education can be valuable. Even the worst societies in the world have some basic idea of schooling. You might not be able to convince your husband to let you go to a family planning clinic, but you might be able to convince him that being able read would be harmless. Maybe it would help you earn money doing some clerical work on the side, or even teaching the village kids herself. Women's working hours are an even better predictor of family size, going back to the "how valuable is a woman's time" hypothesis of fertility rates.

I'm not saying there's a magic cure through setting up a handful of schools. Birth rates are what they are for good economic reasons. People are making individually rational decisions that have collectively disastrous consequences. We need to change their situation, and *that is not easy*. It's not even close to easy. But I think educational levels are at the core of the change, and that culture will change along with that more likely than vice versa. Resistance by reactionary elements, especially men, but also women, is an enormous obstacle, one that every society with currently low birth rates has struggled with at some point.

Education, I think, only works on the educated.

In addition to being cynical, I think that's absolutely incorrect, and maybe a touch nonsensical (how do you educate anyone about anything, if education only convinces the educated?). But you're probably right about the "useless to go on" bit.

-Jester