| Abstract: |
Using data across countries and over time we show that women are unhappier
than men in unhappiness and negative affect equations, irrespective of the
measure used – anxiety, depression, fearfulness, sadness, loneliness, anger –
and they have more days with bad mental health and more restless sleep. Women
are also less satisfied with many aspects of their lives such as democracy,
the economy, the state of education and health services. They are also less
happy in the moment in terms of peace and calm, cheerfulness, feeling active,
vigorous, fresh and rested. However, prior evidence on gender differences in
global wellbeing metrics – happiness and life satisfaction – is less clear
cut. Differences vary over time, location, and with model specification and
the inclusion of controls especially marital status. We also show that there
are significant variations by month in happiness data regarding whether males
are happier than females but find little variation by month in unhappiness
data. It matters which months are sampled when measuring positive affect but
not with negative affect. These monthly data reveal that women’s happiness was
more adversely affected by the COVID shock than men’s, but also that women’s
happiness rebounded more quickly suggesting resilience. As a result, we now
find strong evidence that males have higher levels of both happiness and life
satisfaction in recent years even before the onset of pandemic. As in the past
they continue to have lower levels of unhappiness. A detailed analysis of
several data files, with various metrics, for the UK confirms that men now are
happier than women. |