Statistic
Declined, absolutely & vs men
Women's self-reported happiness fell over ~35 years, both absolutely and relative to men
A well-known economics study found that US women's subjective well-being declined over roughly 35 years, both absolutely and relative to men, even as their objective circumstances improved. The authors present it as a paradox and do not attribute the decline to feminism.
The number
Analysing decades of US survey data, economists Stevenson and Wolfers found that women's self-reported happiness fell over roughly 35 years — both in absolute terms and relative to men — even as women's objective circumstances improved. [1]
by many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet ... measures of subjective well-being indicate that women's happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men
What it does and doesn't establish
The decline is a genuine, peer-reviewed finding: women did report lower subjective well-being, and the happiness gap that once favoured women eroded. [1] What it does not establish is a cause. The authors present the result as a paradox and canvass several possible explanations; they do not attribute it to feminism or any single factor. [1] A trend that unfolded during an era is not proof that the era's most convenient villain caused it — and over the same decades women's objective position in education, earnings and rights rose rather than fell. The number is real; the leap to "feminism made women's lives worse" is not licensed by it.
Sources
1 source · all archived at publication
- [1]The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness · American Economic Journal: Economic Policy · 2009-08-01 archived ↗
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