Schooling in the UK ends at 21 and women get a grad job at 22. I was working full time at 22 and was earning management position wages at 25, which you could argue is peak fertility.Again, I'm looking at through a strictly productivity point of view. The longer women spend in school = lower fertility. That simple. It simply makes no sense for a society to just let it's most capable women become a genetic dead end. That is how you get an idiocracy with society just degrading.
There is clearly more to it. The only positions that have schooling for that long would be medical school and you’re smart enough to know we do need female doctors.
I do believe it’s more to it. Most women I know who are single aren’t because of work commitments and believe me I’m a professional woman and have been for since 21/22 and all the women I know who are single at 26 are single for personal reasons and not being able to find the right man for instance. That might tie into your argument as many would argue that if women had limited option and would be in dire poverty if their fathers were to pass away for example, they’d settle down and choose any man, even whom one they don’t like.It's not a good spiral, and it happens everywhere in the world from the US to Asia to Africa. I'm not saying women should be kept in Taliban like conditions, but that the whole structure needs a huge revamp.
But another thing you’re not taking into account though is that men aren’t settling down early as well and whilst it might not impact their fertility, societies in which women marry earlier, are also societies in which men marry earlier and value marriage as well.
I’m in the Middle East and have female managers with 6 kids and a whole lot of grandkids. What the difference? They have help and a government that makes their lives easier. The idea that women can’t have a lot of kids and be educated is a myth and it’s something I’ve noticed since being here. I literally know women with more than 5 kids here with higher positions. It shows that it’s a lot more complicated than education but culture, the economy and the amount of help women get also plays a role.There's an stat of where women with a degree in Ethiopia have less than 2 kids while women with no education have about 5-6. You can't really do anything too transformative unless that dynamic is flipped.
tbh it’s the same for educated men and they can have kids well into their 80s, but still they’re choosing to have less kids on average. Collage educated men take their time having children so it’s clearly a culture issue and the economy since these men can have children anytime but choose not to.