Women report that the desire to bear children is not a biological universal, and indeed that, when presented with rational options for creating socially meaningful lives, forgoing children is in itself virtuous. This analysis provides an interpretive context for the strong correlation between female educational attainment and declines in fertility rates. The operative assumption is that the self-declared standards and economic prosperity is the key measure for valuing individual worth, the salient question being what quantifiable accomplishments have I attained. Some debate that this standard is solipsistic nihilism in that social accomplishments by definition contribute to society. This claim, however, views individuals as having limited to no intrinsic value, thereby subjecting others to judgmental stratification. Moreover, it is no mere platitude that when measured at death, individual industry tends not to be recalled as much as the personality as a whole. On the other hand, regulating sexual desires, which are per se selfish owing to its object is internal to the person, results in an increase in a desire for creative activity.
Among the biological consequences of sexual self-control is hormonal changes, especially in males, that effect behavior in ways intended to make their personalities more attractive to women. High-levels of male sexual activity results in a coarsening of behavior, brutalization of human relationships, and when broadly indulged, a decline in social culture.
Given the wide spread use of highly effective methods of contraception it is reasonable to assume that women and men are sexually active and capable of producing children. Objectification of persons within intimate human relationships is the consequence of self-indulgence. Moreover, while rational economic economic choices are marginal benefit contributions to overall social ends, the consequences of growing humanity is the expansion of love, compassion, gentility, and humility. This productivity also demands protective affections in both women and men that give rise to the virtues of courage, stability, moderation, tolerance, and optimistic cheerfulness. These characteristics emerge as part of the ascetic practice of chastity, the aim of which is the purification of the relationships by an intense exercise of loving care for the other, transforming personal will into the urge to manifest the fullness of the partner as an act of love.
Though anathema to many, the value of chastity in search of purity as an element in aid of the life of both married and single people to society is substantial. For men and women, the practice of chastity has the salutary effect of producing humanity, both materially in the form of increasing the desirability of children and socially, as expressed by individual character and cultural refinement. As such, chastity constitutes an authentic path to human fertility. The discipline of chastity, whether applied to sexual activity or to moral psychology, is a life-long struggle. However, as with all other good challenges in life on that bears so much fruit, both for the individual and for the society, hence warranting its promotion..