What is causing mens happiness to rise?
Some of you looked at the gradual climb in men’s happiness and wondered whether ‘”feminism had benefitted men more than women.” You may be right, though the data point the other way—in 1977, 35 percent of men in dual-earner couples reported feeling some kind of work/life conflict, whereas today 59 percent of men do. However, we know what is causing men’s slight increase in happiness, and it’s not feminism. It’s increased prosperity. Over the past 40 years, the Gross Domestic Product of the United States has climbed 3.1 percent per year and, though money neither buys nor sustains happiness for individuals, increases in national GDP do correlate to increases in national levels of happiness. This makes women’s decline even more startling. The tide of prosperity should have raised everyone’s spirits, but instead, women’s have gradually sunk lower. Are women simply more honest about their feelings? Maybe. Maybe men, in aggregate, are emotionally closed off, out of touch with their true emot
