STRESS, UNHAPPINESS: Why women are worse off than men
A poll published this week reveals that 46 percent of Australian women — compared with 41 percent of men — report feeling “very stressed” in their everyday lives.
The poll, commissioned by Lifeline Australia, interviewed 1200 men and women.
Similar findings in American women were published in 2009 by authors Stevenson and Wolfers. They noted how recent declines in female happiness “have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s reported higher subjective well-being than did men . . . a new gender gap is emerging—one with higher subjective well-being for men.” (American Economic Journal: 2009 )
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Did something happen just before the 1970s to affect women so as to reduce their happiness?
The Contraceptive Pill was introduced in the early 1960s. Women’s well-being has deteriorated ever since. Could that be cause and effect?
Why would the Pill make women less happy?
There are about 100 reasons. Here are a few:
* when busy in the home, looking after 3, 4, 5, or more children, pre-Pill women had plenty to do — too busy to ask themselves, how stressed am I today?
* they had the joy and happiness of knowing they were doing something they were cut out for. Their husband couldn’t give birth to a child, breast feed, or do the many things that come naturally to mothers.
* they didn’t feel the insecurity of a 50 percent chance of ending up divorced
* they felt less pressure to go out into the so-called “workforce” – being already busy with work to which they were ideally suited. No need to go out anywhere.
* not being in an office, factory or whatever, they escaped the stress of bosses and workmates eyeing them off and discussing whether they were “hot” or not.
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So what about women going out to jobs?
Pope Pius XI discussed the so-called “emancipation” of working women, as long ago as 1930:
“This, however, is not the true emancipation of women, nor that rational and exalted liberty which belongs to the noble office of a Christian woman and wife; it is rather the debasing of the womanly character and the dignity of motherhood, and indeed of the whole family . . . .” (Encyclical on Christian Marriage, Casti Connubii)
Some things don’t change.
I believe that women generally are worse off than before.
I have virtually no real hard statistics on this.
(1) Other than 41% of the children being born today are to single mothers. And a good portion of them are under 18.
(2) I also see things. Reports of women living out of cars.
(3) People in general doing things that I consider to be crazy. For instance, going to law school without first checking with an expert to see if you have the ability to become a lawyer and only later t after getting out of law school and finding out that unless you are in the top 10 pecent of your class, you will not get a job.
(4) The government placing restrictions and quotas on companies. Then the companies decide that with these new “guide lines´´, they can no longer make a profit, if they produce a product in the US. So they close down all of their factories and go to eastern countries and open facotories there. And somtimes proudly proclaiming that 90% of their work force are women. (NOT MENTIONING THAT THEY ARE PAYING THEM FIFTY CENTS AN HOUR and thus the companies stock profits going through the roof) An example of that is Nike sneakers.
(5) Young men insisting they will never get married after eyewitnessing how their mothers acted as a “Partner´´ in her marriage. And young men stating that a marriage is nothing more than a way to lose all control of your life whereby after being married the wife will not be a partner, but will shoot for the “CEO´´ position.
(6) The US media (CNN is an example) portraying good religious women as the “church lady.´´ And coming to the conclusion that being a house wife is a disgrace. Putting out a philosophy that a woman has to rebel from this life style. The video “I want to break free´´ by Freddy Mercury is an example. The pilot episode of Desparate housewives is another example. The first five minutes of the pilot show, a housewife blew her brains out with a gun. As well as the hidden message of tv shows like Dallas and Thorn birds.
(7) Making tv shows of how much fun it would be for a woman to mistreat and abuse a man. IE Sex and the city.