DP7311 The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness

Author(s): Betsey Stevenson , Justin Wolfers

Publication Date: June 2009

Keyword(s): gender , happiness , job satisfaction , life satisfaction , subjective well-being , women's movement

JEL(s): D6 , I32 , J1 , J7 , K1

Programme Areas: Labour Economics , Public Policy

Link to this Page: www.cepr.org/pubs/dps/DP7311.asp.asp

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.