Data shows [1] educated, empowered women with access to contraceptives have less children overall, and defer having children until later in life, full stop.
I also argue it is a net positive, regardless of the underlying mechanism(s), that the fertility rate is declining across the world considering the unsustainable consumption rate per capita of the first world.
This is a good point. A lower fertility rate will probably result in a better quality of life for people in the long run since there is less competition for resources
I agree with those points but I have not seen evidence for the idea that the availability of social safety nets is not also a significant factor in fertility rate trend, which I took to be the thrust of your original post.
Conversely, I haven't seen evidence that the availability of social safety nets is a significant factor. More data is required, but I still believe my theory is on sound footing based on existing fertility data.
I also argue it is a net positive, regardless of the underlying mechanism(s), that the fertility rate is declining across the world considering the unsustainable consumption rate per capita of the first world.
[1] https://ourworldindata.org/fertility-rate#empowerment-of-wom...