Original article: "The Downside of Fertility" - Claudia Goldin - https://www.nber.org/papers/w34268

>The global shift, she continued, can be traced to one common cause: the increased agency of women, who during the last century became increasingly able to opt out of traditional family roles to pursue other options, such as education and careers.

This seems like an intuitive argument, but perhaps it would be better to focus more on the fact that it's affecting wealthy nations first an foremost? Even women who want children and prefer traditional gender roles are put off by economic costs that are much higher than what previous generations had to pay.

> Rising birth rates no longer tied to economic prosperity

It has never been true and the opening part of the paper acknowledges it. This is a sensationalised title. High birth rates have always understandably been linked to poverty.