“It’s pretty much a constant”: Women are more unhappy than men around the world

For years, researchers have puzzled over a phenomenon known as the “female happiness paradox.” A number of global surveys found that women experience higher levels of life satisfaction than men—but also higher levels of stress, anxiety, and other negative emotions. Meanwhile, a well-known 2009 study found that American women’s self-reported happiness had fallen in the decades since the 1970s, even as the gender equality movement made important strides.

So are women happy or not? A new working paper, from the National Bureau of Economic Research, claims to have solved the paradox. Labor economists David Blanchflower and Alex Bryson analyze global data and conclude that “women are always and everywhere more unhappy than men.”

The authors explain that the female happiness paradox emerged in part because of the types of questions researchers ask. If surveys ask men and women about how satisfied they are with their lives, trends may vary depending on where they live, the year, or even the season. Including controls for other factors besides gender (such as marital status) can also muddy the results; for example, it’s not necessarily clear whether marriage makes people happier, or if happier people are more likely to get married.

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