Don’t blame women for our low birthrate – we need to fix our precarious society

The last time there was a panic about women not having kids, it was because we were smashing glass ceilings. Now many young people simply can't afford to start families

Dorothy Byrne, the president of Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge, has warned students not to leave it too late to have a baby. It is an all-female college, of course, otherwise this would make no sense: no one would ever tell a man when to sire young, because it would be considered intrusive and unnecessary. Also, Charlie Chaplin, huh? Remember how old he was when he had his youngest? What a top dog.

This was a huge preoccupation in the 90s - that women were going to forget about having kids until it was too late. Then, as now, it was rooted in fears about the birthrate and the average age of first-time mothers. (The birthrate last year was 1.53 for each woman, down from 2 in 2000, which is striking.) It used to drive me mad, partly because it is the most incredible pain to be a fertile woman. People are constantly in your grill, telling you what decisions you should make and when, what to eat and drink, whom to shag. It is completely draining.