Are men happier than women?

Andreas Lehner / CC

A couple of studies a few years back found a growing happiness gap between men and women. One tracked traditional happiness data by asking people how satisfied they are with their lives. It found that women, who in the early 1970s reported being slightly happier than men, are now slightly less happy. The other analyzed time-use studies over the past four decades to determine how much time men and women spent doing things they found unpleasant. Since the 1960s, men have gradually cut back on tasks they dislike. They now work less and relax more. Meanwhile, women have replaced housework with paid work, and as a result are spending more time doing things they don’t enjoy. Women aren’t actually working more today than they were 30 or 40 years ago — they’re just spending more time on paid work and less on cooking and cleaning.