Monday, March 14, 2011

Are British women happier than American women?

I may have missed the point of Saturday's New York Times column about Britain's new "national happiness index," but the part that most interested me was the British research mentioned that found "women tend to be happier than men." Huh? I always assumed men were happier than women ... they make more money, have less socially unacceptable body hair to contend with, grow more attractive with age... I thought that's why they fall asleep faster -- nothing but visions of sugarplums dancing in their heads.

A quick Google search confirmed my suspicion -- with regard to Americans. So how have our sisters across the pond achieved the upperhand when it comes to happiness? A few theories:
  • Uniformed schoolgirls learn about role models like Elizabeth I and Margaret Thatcher -- without the distraction of dressing themselves in the hottest fashions every morning.
  • Although the UK has a similar salary gap, British ladies can at least admire the likeness of their gender when parting with their hard-earned cash.
  • While their lack of grooming and dieting obsessions might offend American men, this doesn't seem to bother British women much.

4 comments:

Christina Lee said...

WOW sososososososo interesting! huh, maybe we need to learn a thing or tow!

Josie said...

Wonder where us Aussie women fall?

Amy said...

Hm... Google was not as helpful with the Aussie question, but I did find these factoids from an Australian study (http://www.theage.com.au/national/what-men-and-women-want-australian-happiness-index-20081002-4s7r.html):

Sex ranks as a top five activity to make men happy and surfing the internet tops even that at number three.

Sex and the internet were also top 10 choices for women to make them happy, but enjoying a family meal and playing with pets or children ranked much higher.

Sigh...

Josie said...

Yes, well, let's do our own little survey of Aussie women because clearly the people responding to the survey have actually had sex recently. If you hadn't had sex recently you'd feel fairly certain that it would rank in your top 3! I have no desire to enjoy a family meal, play with children or pets. And I'm sure I spend far too much time surfing the internet. . . still not that happy! :-)

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