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The Care Dilemma: Freedom, Family and Fertility
A FINANCIAL TIMES AND THE SPECTATOR BOOK OF THE YEAR
'Important' Financial Times
'Serious and thought-provoking' The Critic
'Brave' Richard Reeves
'Excellent' Jonathan Haidt
Family life has changed dramatically over the past 60 years.
Greater choice and autonomy, especially for women, and a more equal domestic sphere have brought great gains for human freedom. However, argues David Goodhart, there have been losses and unintended consequences too – in family instability, children's declining mental health, and the ever-rising demands on the welfare state and social care system. Sharply falling birthrates also present major challenges.
For many people, especially in the bottom half of the income spectrum, the costs are now too high. The Care Dilemma argues that we need a new policy settlement that supports gender equality while also recognising the importance of stable families and community life, and that sees having children as a public as well as private good.
'Important' Financial Times
'Serious and thought-provoking' The Critic
'Brave' Richard Reeves
'Excellent' Jonathan Haidt
Family life has changed dramatically over the past 60 years.
Greater choice and autonomy, especially for women, and a more equal domestic sphere have brought great gains for human freedom. However, argues David Goodhart, there have been losses and unintended consequences too – in family instability, children's declining mental health, and the ever-rising demands on the welfare state and social care system. Sharply falling birthrates also present major challenges.
For many people, especially in the bottom half of the income spectrum, the costs are now too high. The Care Dilemma argues that we need a new policy settlement that supports gender equality while also recognising the importance of stable families and community life, and that sees having children as a public as well as private good.
- GenresNonfiction
363 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 24, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 13, 2026
Covers interesting topics and contains lots of ideas. I enjoyed, for example, being given an overview of current gender pay gap numbers from the ONS. Lots of details about caring for children and parents hit home, and I was grateful to have a forum of the book to think through these experiences at the level of societal issues and policies. Didn't always agree or resonate with his proposed solutions, but that's fine.
I struggled with the writing style. Lots of sentences contain three ideas, and topics jump around within paragraphs. Facts are given without explaining much about the sources, so you might have to go and look up the source material. Quotes are given by people you haven't heard of, so you might need to go and look up who they are. Potentially policies are mentioned whilst going through background information. Some policies are discussed, with asides saying that they could be funded, for example, by reforming council tax, which is huge undertaking even if true. I can't recall one sentence that was a real pleasure to read because of how it was written: not a writer with a knack for explaining complex ideas through a nice turn of phrase. I felt like a wall against which bits of spaghetti are being thrown to see if they stick. I can see that the style might work for a newspaper opinion piece, but over 300 pages it felt disorganized and hectoring.
One thing in particular was striking: there were many personal stories from the author's life and of those in his sphere of experience, and yet I came away with very little sense of the author himself. For example, I didn't get a clear idea of why he wrote the book.
Glad to have read the book. Given this at least a fourth book, hope an editor gets more influence in the next.
I struggled with the writing style. Lots of sentences contain three ideas, and topics jump around within paragraphs. Facts are given without explaining much about the sources, so you might have to go and look up the source material. Quotes are given by people you haven't heard of, so you might need to go and look up who they are. Potentially policies are mentioned whilst going through background information. Some policies are discussed, with asides saying that they could be funded, for example, by reforming council tax, which is huge undertaking even if true. I can't recall one sentence that was a real pleasure to read because of how it was written: not a writer with a knack for explaining complex ideas through a nice turn of phrase. I felt like a wall against which bits of spaghetti are being thrown to see if they stick. I can see that the style might work for a newspaper opinion piece, but over 300 pages it felt disorganized and hectoring.
One thing in particular was striking: there were many personal stories from the author's life and of those in his sphere of experience, and yet I came away with very little sense of the author himself. For example, I didn't get a clear idea of why he wrote the book.
Glad to have read the book. Given this at least a fourth book, hope an editor gets more influence in the next.
November 10, 2024
I mostly enjoyed this. I think the author makes a fair assessment of the issues that modern women in Britain face. I think some of his proposals for how to get through the problems are good, but I don’t think they’re anything that will be taken seriously by politicians.
I’m not sure he made a strong enough case against the current culture of autonomy. I’m surprised he hadn’t noticed that the advent of the pill, making parenthood optional and the exclusive responsibility of women, has contributed to the falling birth rate. He sees the pill as a good thing, when really it hasn’t done women very many favours, in terms of long term health and in the pressure on avoiding children. He did mention some of Mary Eberstadt’s work on it, but made broadly positive statements about the benefits for women.
I really did appreciate how he’s read thinkers like Mary Harrington, Louise Perry, and Erica Bachiochi and has taken their thoughts on board.
Overall I appreciate his contribution to the conversation around care and family life in modern Britain, I think it’s so needed, I just don’t think he goes far enough. It’s also very hard to convince people to do something difficult, when an easier route exists. Without a serious defence of why we should make our lives inconvenient (which theology gives you with the way it views suffering as potentially redemptive) then parenthood and caring remain optional add ons that only the slightly insane take on - “better them than us”.
I’m not sure he made a strong enough case against the current culture of autonomy. I’m surprised he hadn’t noticed that the advent of the pill, making parenthood optional and the exclusive responsibility of women, has contributed to the falling birth rate. He sees the pill as a good thing, when really it hasn’t done women very many favours, in terms of long term health and in the pressure on avoiding children. He did mention some of Mary Eberstadt’s work on it, but made broadly positive statements about the benefits for women.
I really did appreciate how he’s read thinkers like Mary Harrington, Louise Perry, and Erica Bachiochi and has taken their thoughts on board.
Overall I appreciate his contribution to the conversation around care and family life in modern Britain, I think it’s so needed, I just don’t think he goes far enough. It’s also very hard to convince people to do something difficult, when an easier route exists. Without a serious defence of why we should make our lives inconvenient (which theology gives you with the way it views suffering as potentially redemptive) then parenthood and caring remain optional add ons that only the slightly insane take on - “better them than us”.
March 11, 2025
How we care for our children, our elderly or others who need support in society tells us so much about the way we live.
Goodhart illuminates the challenges faced by a society who historically leaned on the family, and particularly the unpaid work for women in order to provide this care. While few would advocate turning back the clock, it seems unlikely that technology or immigration can fill this vacuum.
So what options are left for society, or the state, in developing the future of care.? Goodhart frames up the key points clearly, supplements personal and subjective views with plenty of sources and data and isn't afraid to prescribe recommended actions.
Came away with a real interest in what pollicymakers can do to improve this situation, but equally a sense of the branding job that could be done with care work and the fascinating insight that so many people derive more satisfaction from this work than other careers.
A book that will stay with me.
The freedoms afforded to women to pursue a career
Goodhart illuminates the challenges faced by a society who historically leaned on the family, and particularly the unpaid work for women in order to provide this care. While few would advocate turning back the clock, it seems unlikely that technology or immigration can fill this vacuum.
So what options are left for society, or the state, in developing the future of care.? Goodhart frames up the key points clearly, supplements personal and subjective views with plenty of sources and data and isn't afraid to prescribe recommended actions.
Came away with a real interest in what pollicymakers can do to improve this situation, but equally a sense of the branding job that could be done with care work and the fascinating insight that so many people derive more satisfaction from this work than other careers.
A book that will stay with me.
The freedoms afforded to women to pursue a career
November 10, 2025
An excellent and important book that covers topics that many will be uncomfortable with, in particular the consequences of female emancipation on female fertility and the future of the human species. Whatever your reaction, it is still important to understand how we have got here, when the threat of depopulation has replaced the fear of overpopulation.
I remember The Population Bomb first hitting the headlines and I spent five decades with the expectation of an ever-expanding human race. It's a jolt to realise that I might actually live to see the world's population begin to fall.
The other topics are also covered in depth. The book raises a lot of questions, and I hope they start to be asked more widely, and by our politicians, before it's too late.
I remember The Population Bomb first hitting the headlines and I spent five decades with the expectation of an ever-expanding human race. It's a jolt to realise that I might actually live to see the world's population begin to fall.
The other topics are also covered in depth. The book raises a lot of questions, and I hope they start to be asked more widely, and by our politicians, before it's too late.
December 23, 2025
Well-balanced analysis with a lot of data.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews