第9期女性幸福感为何下降 - 英语阅读

第9期女性幸福感为何下降-英语阅读
Unit 9 Why Aren't Women Happier
Why aren't women happier these days?
That's the question raised by a thought-provoking study, The Paradox
01 Declining Female Happiness, released last month.
The research showed that over the past 35 years women's happiness has
declined, both compared to the past and relative to men even though,
by most objective measures,the lives of women in the US have improved
in recent decades.
The research, by University of Pennsylvania economists Stevenson
and Wolfers, and released by the National Bureau of Economic Research,
found the decline in happiness to be pervasive among women across
a variety of demographic groups.
The researchers, for instance, measured similar declines in happiness
among women who were single Parents and married parents, "
casting doubt on the hypothesis that trends in marriage and divorce,
single parenthood or work/family balance are at the root of the
happiness declines among women," they wrote.
One theory for the decline in happiness is that expectations for workplace
and general advancement were raised too high by the women's movement
and women might feel inadequate for not "having it all," as a Los Angeles
Times columnist recently put it.
The researchers acknowledge that's a possibility:
"If the women's movement raised women's expectations faster than society was
able to meet them," the paper says, "
they would be more likely to be disappointed by their actual experienced lives."
But they add, things could change for the better: "
As women's expectations move into alignment with their experiences,
this decline in happiness may reverse."
Readers, why do you think women are unhappier than in the past?
Do you think that if expectations for "having it all" were lowered to "
move into alignment with experiences," women might be happier?