The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness / Betsey Stevenson, Justin Wolfers.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Stevenson, Betsey.

Contributor:

National Bureau of Economic Research.

Wolfers, Justin.

Series:

Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w14969.

NBER working paper series no. w14969

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2009.

Summary:

By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women's happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. The paradox of women's declining relative well-being is found across various datasets, measures of subjective well-being, and is pervasive across demographic groups and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which 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.

Notes:

Print version record

May 2009.