Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness

2009; American Economic Association; Volume: 1; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1257/pol.1.2.190

1945-7812

Betsey Stevenson, Justin Wolfers,

Employment and Welfare Studies

The lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years by many objective measures, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women's happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. This decline in relative well-being is found across various datasets, measures of subjective well-being, demographic groups, and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s 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. (JEL I31, J16, J28)