Why are women less happy now than they were in the 70's?

cxj · 2015-05-23T11:58:21+00:00

I don't think something as widespread as this can be easily explained, but we can probably suggest some influencing factors.

I think the common social belief that "women are oppressed" is a contributing factor. The gender conversation has been dominated by feminists, who employ a theoretical framework which makes women being oppressed the only conclusion that can be drawn. Being told repeatedly that you are the victim of a global conspiracy probably isn't much good for the happy making.

I sometimes entertain the crazy notion that our society was shaped as much by women as it was by men, each working in their own best interest. For example, it may sound insane, but I think there's a slight chance that most women want to be close to their children and raise them, because people love their children. I think there's a slight chance most women weren't interested in working in blazing heat in a field for 14 hours a day, or in a coal mine, or on top of a building.

But the grass is always greener, and when you have people constantly defining power, happiness, and success as that which is associated with other people, you start to think that your life must be categorically worse than theirs.

The focus from feminists has always been to exclusively focus on the benefits men have and never the detriments - since most political positions are filled by men, being in political office must be power. Since more money is earned by men, having more money must be privilege. When going to college was primarily a male persuit, higher education was a privilege.

So the narrative was sold that, if only women could go to college, work outside the home, and hold political office, they would finally be "equal" to men, and would be freed from their subservience. And I think a lot of women bought into that, and now they're finding out that, well, shit sucks. Stressing over writing papers and pulling all nighters for a test in the morning isn't a cake walk. The corporate world is stressful, many jobs are dangerous and unpleasant, labor jobs break your body down. Politics is a self-serving shitshow and you miss your kids growing up while paying for a stranger to raise them, barely having any energy to devote to time with them because your mental and physical energies are drained.

Now, before anybody twists this into something I didn't say (because that never happens on the internet), I'm not saying women shouldn't work outside the home, or hold political office, or any such nonsense. Of course they should, in as much as they themselves desire to.

My point is I expect that the expectations women have been primed to have about these things, as compared to the reality, is a part of the reason for women's declining happiness.

LadyoftheDam · 2015-05-23T12:02:17+00:00

Over time it is likely that women are aggregating satis- faction over an increasingly larger domain set. For example, life satisfaction may have previously meant “satisfaction at home” and has increasingly come to mean some combination of “satisfaction at home” and “satisfaction at work.” This averag- ing over many domains may lead to falling average satisfaction if it is difficult to achieve the same degree of satisfaction in multiple domains.

This makes some sense. If women feel pressure to "have it all" (which has never appealed to me, and this whole "be out of your mind busy" thing that I see bleed into kids' lives seems to be a byproduct of this desire) I imagine they'd feel dissatisfaction if they can't achieve it. It just makes me think of the kids that have something scheduled every night of the week. There are so many opportunities, people seem obsessed with taking advantage of them all. It's unrealistic. Or maybe I'm just unambitious. But I'm happy and satisfied across two domains! I think people just need to be better at prioritizing and realize that you can't make everything a priority. You have to choose.

Nazrath2112 · 2015-05-24T03:20:02+00:00

It is pretty simple, Feminism has made women unhappy. If you look for issues all day long and then try and fight those issues, unless those issues go your way all the time, anytime you get shot down women will get angry. After that they will then spend the next 3 gossip sessions talking about how upset they are and all of the feminist agree, which makes them unhappy. If you remove feminism then women will be happier.

itsalreadybeenthrown · 2015-05-23T15:24:09+00:00

From my personal experience I am much happier now.

buartha · 2015-05-23T15:53:02+00:00

I'd imagine a lot of it is that in America women who work tend to have a job and look after the home and be the primary caretakers of their children (see here for some stats on it, and here if you want to see an article with those stats broken down for the lazy, ha.) Some of the stats are skewed by the fact that there are more stay at home mothers, but full-time working mothers still end up doing housework three times as much as full-time working fathers, and do the bulk of the childcare.

5th_Law_of_Robotics · 2015-05-23T15:48:54+00:00

I'd guess it's due to expectations rising at a certain rate and reality improving at a different rate.

[deleted] · 2015-05-23T18:45:33+00:00

The second shift will do that to you.

[deleted] · 2015-05-24T17:53:31+00:00

Because the Sex Wars are over, and men won.

foxytheterrorterrier · 2015-05-23T20:22:33+00:00

Because they were in a period where they or their parents could remember what it is like to be oppressed and were able to notice that things were changing for the better. Younger feminists in current times don't understand how good we have it and that things are still changing progressively.

Also, it's very difficult for most women to be stay at home mom's and are expected to have a career. This puts a lot more pressure on us, even if having a career is what you want. Many women do not have the choice, they pretty much have to get a degree and do something. Figuring out what you want to do is stressful, and unless you have a career you love, a two person working household is stressful. You cannot spend the evening with your family because you didn't do all the cooking and cleaning while husband was at work, now you have to both come home and argue over who is doing what chores before you can sit down and eat a good meal with your kids.

Also, it was easier to get drugs and sleep around in the 70s.

Title	Why are women less happy now than they were in the 70's?
Author	sumant28
Upvotes	8
Comments	44
Date	May 23, 2015 11:33 AM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/36z9o7/why_are_women_less_happy_now_than_they_were_in/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/why-are-women-less-happy-now-than-they-were-in-the.282010 https://theredarchive.com/post/282010

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