Independent Women, Throw Your Hands Up?

Annie,

Last week, much media attention was paid to new statistics from the General Social Survey claiming that American women's happiness has declined overall since 1972. Every year, women and men have been asked to rate their happiness on a scale of 1 to 3, 1 being "not too happy" and 3 being "very happy." Women's average happiness rating declined from approximately 2.25 in 1972 to approximately 2.17 in 2006. The happiness of men seems to have gone up inversely to women's, crossing paths in the very early 1990's. On top of that, the study found that women's happiness declines as they age, dissatisfaction setting in deeper and deeper with each passing decade (via Marcus Buckingham).

Maureen Dowd called widespread attention to the new data this past Sunday in her column, "Blue is the New Black," which was the single-most emailed article in the last seven days at NYTimes.com. She highlighted the "paradox" of women's increasing opportunities in both public and private life causing women to become "stressed" by all the choice, not to mention the pressure that they put on themselves to perform in every aspect of life. Essentially, she suggested, the women's movement has benefited men more than women.

But should we buy this? Perhaps the women's movement has fallen short of certain goals, but I'm not so sure "happiness" falls into that category. First of all, how do we answer the question, "Are you happy?" Doesn't it mean something different to each person? I agree that women these days are under a lot of pressure from all sides, but I take issue with Marcus Buckingham's observation that, "Women have lives that are becoming increasingly empty, they're doing more and feeling less."

Does unhappiness equal emptiness? Many of the 'great men' and the few 'great women' who are heroicized today struggled with 'unhappiness,' or more accurately, they struggled to answer their own questions about the meaning of their existence. Perhaps for these people, 'unhappiness' came from the knowledge of responsibility for the outcome of public life, or perhaps people who are 'unhappy' are more prone to making beautiful art. On the other hand, I deeply want for my friends and loved ones to be happy, so unhappiness is not something that I welcome with open arms in my own life.

What does this data truly mean? Can we go as far to say that 'unhappiness' is a sign of progress in the women's movement? Or does something else need to change for women to finally have "equal happiness?"