I live near a [del]junkyard[/del] auto-recycling site and I drive past the lines of vehicles that came in through the Cash for Clunkers program and have not yet been crushed. Most of them are crappy, old minivans. From this entirely informal survey I suspect CFC increased female happiness in two ways. First, a bunch of women got shiny, new cars that run and handle better and are more comfortable than their old minivans. Second, they have the satisfaction that these symbols of their oppression will soon be utterly destroyed.
The article controlled for income and poverty and the trends remained.
Not only that, but women are actually happier than men until around age 50. Women consistently get more and more unhappy, despite poverty following a U shaped curve.
http://www.mchb.hrsa.gov/whusa04/images/20a_wom_LvBelPovLvl_by_age.gif
Women are at the highest risk of poverty and single motherhood during ages 18-34, but that is the period they are far more happy then men. When they are older and their children are grown (and their poverty rates are lower) they are less happy than men.
Also women as a whole are better educated than men. They earn roughly 160 tertiary (associates, bachelors, masters) degrees for every 100 earned by men. And education is negatively correlated with poverty. So as a whole, women (being more educated then men) should have that to compensate for biases against them in the job market. But they controlled for education too and the trend remained.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/04/women-hogging-diplomas/
I dont think you need a lot of analysis on this. Its not rocket science.
The 2 really really BIG changes in the past 40+ years:
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Women are not as happy because: Women now have to work, and they have to work even if they get married. What is so fun about that?
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Men are happier because: Men can now get a lot of sex, a lot easier, and for free. Why do you think men smile more now?
The problem is that women are happier than men when they are younger, but as they age men get happier and women less happy. At 25 women are more happy, by age 50 it is even, by age 80 men are far happier.
So the arguments that it is due to poverty, or work don’t make sense to me. Poverty and single motherhood are far worse in the teens, 20s and 30s, when women are happier. And women generally don’t work in their 70s and 80s, when they are far less happy than men.
According to that article, women are happier than men until age 47.
Based on that, the conclusions people are drawing are not really justified.
Older women did not get to fully take advantage of feminism’s victories. Perhaps the age at which men catch up to women’s happiness will continue to rise until women maintain higher happiness their entire lives.
25 year old woman? mostly pretty? mostly young? mostly single? mostly slender? athletic? great abs? great hair? no children yet? able to wear either a miniskirt or jeans? Travel? Whats not to be happy about?
As far as men being happier by age 80, by the time men get to age 80, most of them are dead!
That is the argument many people are making. A woman’s self worth (due to evolution and culture) is tied into her appearance and fertility, whereas a man’s self worth is tied more into his income and status. Women lose those things with time, men gain them.
Nonetheless, it isn’t just age but time (now vs decades ago) where the decline is seen.
Thats what we want you to think.
Man, were you ever a hubristic, crappy general. Everyone at West Point hated you.
I was too busy running for president and being supreme commander of NATO to care what the peons thought.
I don’t know if thisstudy is true, or if it is, then why it is true. But for just for GD’s sake, isn’t unhappiness a gap between expectations and reality?
If that’s valid, compared to mens’, are womens’ expectactions unrealistic, or does their reality suck?
In my experience it is expectations. Women (at least many of the ones I’ve known) have unrealistically high expectations of everything, but mostly about their appearance or their personal relationships.
Having high expectations are one thing, but not being able to accept yourself if you fail to achieve them is something else.
What does that have to do with anything? I mean that the culture that makes people think statements like this:
are normal, funny or a valuable contribution to a discussion of women’s unhappiness is probably in part to blame for that unhappiness.
Does no one feel even a slight twinge about making such sweeping generalizations about How Women and Men Are? I know, we’re from Venus, you’re from Mars. Right. When is that fact-free anecdotal “evidence” going to get old? It seems to me to be more profitable to talk about cultural trends and social mores than some monolithic conception of how a group of billions of people IS (since this is supposedly an international phenomenon), as if we are all the same across societies and historical eras. You can talk about biology, which is generally consistent, but these socio-emotional generalizations about gender are just silly and not useful in this context.
Especially since there is a sector of men on this message board who are very touchy about any disparaging remarks made about men. Women who object similarly are sarcastically told they must be “a joy to be around,” as you were.
Hmm, most posts seem to accept the conclusion as trivially true.
And yet there is plenty of data that imply the opposite.
For one thing, men are about four times as likely as women to commit suicide.
(Of course, this isn’t necessarily incompatible with a reality of “men more happy than women”. But the point is, there’s at least a debate to be had here.)
Nicely put, I haven’t heard that observation before. And it does ring true to me.
Women actually attempt suicide more often than men do (see CDC Suicide: Facts at a Glance PDF). Men are however more likely to have their suicide attempts succeed.
A big part of the difference is that men and women (in the US at least) favor different methods for suicide. Men are more likely to shoot themselves than women are, and women are far more likely to poison themselves than men are. (See this chart on suicide method by gender.) Someone who attempts suicide by poisoning is more likely to survive than someone who puts a gun to their own head, because with poison there’s a chance that the person will misjudge the dose or will be saved through medical intervention. People do occasionally survive after shooting themselves, but it’s a lot easier for a doctor to help a patient who’s been poisoned.
Some considerable number of failed suicide attempts were probably never seriously meant to succeed, they were “cry for help” attempts. But whether such people genuinely want to die or not, they’re obviously not happy.
Could it be that men are more happy because the unhappy ones have successfully committed suicide, while some of the unhappy females have unsuccessfully committed suicide and are still part of the “unhappy” statistics?
I’m sorry. I should’ve explained that I was talking about my experience, and the women I’ve known personally. Wait, I did that. But you are right, its my fault you lack the reading comprehension skills to interpret a 3 sentence response.
I also don’t see why you aren’t complaining out the women who were saying the same thing, about high expectations playing a role in this.
I’m not sure why of all the dozens of people who are making general statements about the behavior of women and men in this thread, you pick mine out to complain about. I’m not sure what your motives are in that situation.
I’m not touchy. I love the disparaging remarks about men. I even made a few.
Which could be why I said anecdotes aren’t particularly useful in this situation. But yeah, obviously I can’t read. Whatever.
I’m sorry, didn’t you see where I said “How Women and Men Are?” This comment was addressed to the making of generalizations on both sides. But somehow you feel singled out. I quoted you because you were the closest to the bottom of the thread. But if you want to get all pissy and take it personally, knock yourself out.
Whatever you say.
I’m wondering if maybe there’s no real difference between happiness levels and it’s just that guys are less likely to admit to unhappiness for fear of being viewed as pussies or something.
Men become happier with age though according to the study, on average 80 year old men are happier than 25 year old men.