Happiness and Female

Happiness and Female

According to a paper, “The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness”, published by Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers from the University of Pennsylvania, it is found that the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet the measures of subjective well-being indicate that women‘s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to male happiness. 

The paradox of women’s declining relative well-being is found by examining multiple countries, datasets, and measures of subjective well-being, and is pervasive across demographic groups. Here are some of the possible reasons given in the paper: 

 • Decreased social cohesion 

• Increased anxiety and neuroticism 

• Increased household risk 

• The increased opportunity to succeed in many dimensions may have led to an increased likelihood of believing that one’s life is not measuring up

 • Women may now compare their lives to a broader group, including men, and find their lives more likely to come up short in this assessment

 • The complexity and increased pressure in their modern lives to have come at the cost of happiness

 • The changes brought about through the women’s movement may have decreased women’s happiness 

 Are Malaysian females happier than before or their happiness has declined?

Image source: https://www.psypost.org/2018/11/heres-why-men-and-women-experience-happiness-differently-52653