nevertheless this is lower than the oecd average of and well below the population replacement rate of children per woman stagnating fertility rates are a particularly important issue for germany aside from the personal satisfaction derived from raising children fewer babies means fewer workers in the future with pernicious consequences for the economy german women with higher educational attainment are less likely to have children as are women engaged in paid work and especially women engaged in fulltime paid work women w ith higher earnings are also much less likely to have a child than women with lower earnings as lowerincome women often live with a male breadwinner differences in gender roles are less dramatic in france where the likelihood of giving birth actually increases with a womans earnings chapter