Women, it seems, are bummed out these days.<\/p>\n
A study released last month from the National Bureau of Economic Research and the University of Pennsylvania showed that even though men’s and women’s happiness levels have both gone down over the last few decades, women’s “subjective well-being” has declined “both absolutely and relatively to men.” The data came from a cross-section of ethnic and socioeconomic groups in several industrialized countries, and appeared to be big news primarily for one reason: When the same research was conducted in the 1970s, women reported higher levels of happiness than they do today.<\/p>\n
Is that because feminism turned out to be a total dud? Or were women in the ’70s hypnotized into serenity by those yellow smiley faces? No one seems quite sure.<\/p>\n