A working paper by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers was recently released by the National Bureau of Economic Research and is attracting attention in the media. Relying mostly on data from the General Social Survey, which includes nationally representative samples from the United States over the past 35 years, the results show that the self-reported happiness and satisfaction in different domains of life have decreased for women while increasing for men. Less pronounced but similar patterns exist in comparable European data.
These trends are not large - i.e., exceptions of course exist - but they are consistent and because of the representativeness of the samples worth taking seriously.
What to make of these data? I participate in a positive psychology list-serve that has seen a lively discussion of the trends. Many plausible explanations have been proposed, although few grapple with an important point made by the authors of the working paper: These trends for women occur across almost all demographic contrasts assessed in the surveys: younger versus older, richer versus poorer, more educated versus less educated, married versus divorced, working mothers versus those who stay at home. and so on. Many of the suggested explanations - e.g., the rise of single mothers and the ensuing stress - would presumably apply more for some groups than others - e.g., the poor - but they do not.
The authors themselves are cautious, but they do remind readers that whatever is going on has to be true of women per se. They further observe that happiness or life satisfaction ratings are inherently relative. So, the trends may reflect a change in the standards women use to judge their own well-being. Perhaps the reference group has changed over the years. Maybe once upon a time women compared themselves to other women, actual or hypothetical, whereas more recently, women are comparing themselves to males or to their own expectations about what a good life for a woman entails. The "you can have it all" ideal sounds wonderful in the abstract, but in the concrete it is very difficult to achieve.
Even in my most optimistic mode, when giving a talk, I tell women (and men) that if they ever have it all, it will be successively rather than simultaneously.
Positive psychologists have recently suggested that the psychological well-being of nations be tracked to supplement economic information like GNP. Policy decisions should be informed by well-being indicators. But what do we do when these indicators point in opposite directions for males and females?
I am woman watch me grow.
See me standing toe to toe,
As I spread my lovin' arms across the land.
But I'm still an embryo
With a long, long way to go
Until I make my brother understand.
- Helen Reddy and Ray Burton (1972)
Reference
Steveneson, B., & Wolfers, J. (2009, May). The paradox of declinin female happiness. Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economnic Research.
