SW Article: Has Feminism Made Women Unhappy?

This is a great article that takes on some of the recent pundits' responses to a survey on men's and women's happiness.

Considering the impact of Arizona's cuts to education and health care on women especially we thought it appropriate to post. Check it out!

HERE WE go again. Another study is out to show how the women's movement ruined women's lives.

This time it's called "The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness," and it's being used by self-help guru Marcus Buckingham to claim--over three decades after the height of the women's rights movement--that "though women now have the liberty to choose whichever life they'd like, many are struggling in their pursuit of a happy life."

The survey by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers at the Wharton School is an analysis of General Social Survey data, which attempts to track Americans' feelings. Each year since 1972, the U.S. General Social Survey has asked 1,500 men and women, "How happy are you, on a scale of 1 to 3, with 3 being very happy, and 1 being not too happy?"

The study concludes that "women in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well-being than did men. These declines have continued and a new gender gap is emerging--one with higher subjective well-being for men."

Check out the rest at Socialist Worker.org.