Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Liberated and Unhappy

By ROSS DOUTHAT

American women are wealthier, healthier and better educated than they were 30 years ago. They’re more likely to work outside the home, and more likely to earn salaries comparable to men’s when they do. They can leave abusive marriages and sue sexist employers. They enjoy unprecedented control over their own fertility. On some fronts — graduation rates, life expectancy and even job security — men look increasingly like the second sex.

But all the achievements of the feminist era may have delivered women to greater unhappiness. In the 1960s, when Betty Friedan diagnosed her fellow wives and daughters as the victims of “the problem with no name,” American women reported themselves happier, on average, than did men. Today, that gender gap has reversed. Male happiness has inched up, and female happiness has dropped. In postfeminist America, men are happier than women.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/26/opinion/26douthat.html?_r=2&em

1 comment:

Daughter of Eve said...

It's my opinion that rapidly feminist women have worked so hard to be like men, they've forgotten how to be women. No wonder they're not happy--they're having an acute identify crisis!