The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness
One of my core principles when discussing gender issues is that we need to trust facts and research more than we trust ideology. In my experience, it is quite common for facts and research to fly in the face of commonly accepted ideological “truths” that have been repeated to the point that many people regard them as facts.
Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfer, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, recently published a very interesting research report about the subjective happiness of men and women. If you want to you can read the whole paper, but the most important findings are summarized in the abstract:
By many objective measures the lives of women in the United States have improved over the past 35 years, yet we show that measures of subjective well-being indicate that women’s happiness has declined both absolutely and relative to men. The paradox of women’s declining relative well-being is found across various datasets, measures of subjective well-being, and is pervasive across demographic groups and industrialized countries. Relative declines in female happiness have eroded a gender gap in happiness in which women in the 1970s typically reported higher subjective well-being than did men. These declines have continued and a new gender gap is emerging—one with higher subjective well-being for men.
These results are very interesting. What the research shows is that as women have entered the workforce, their subjective happiness has declined. Contrary to what is politically correct, women were happier when they were housewives than they are nowadays. How can we explain these results?
- Working outside the home is not as glamorous as feminism would have us believe. Many jobs are exhausting without offering a large monetary reward.
- Many women are torn between the feminist expectation to work fulltime throughout life, and their own desire to work part-time when the children are small.
- Young women are taught that they can have it all: a successful career, a loving relationship, beautiful children and interesting vacations. In reality, life is much more messy and you often need to sacrifice what is important to you in order to achieve something that is even more important to you. Impossible standards lead to unhappiness.
The researchers themselves also have an interesting theory about the declining happiness of women:
First, there may be other important socio-economic forces that have made women worse off. A number of important macro trends have been documented—decreased social cohesion (Putnam, 2000), increased anxiety and neuroticism (Twenge, 2000), and increased household risk (Hacker, 2006). While each of these trends have impacted both men and women, it is possible for even apparently gender-neutral trends to have gender-biased impacts if men and women respond differently to these forces. For example, if women are more risk averse than men, then an increase in risk may lower women’s utility relative to that of men.
In effect, what they are saying is that women and men have had certain roles for thousands of years, and our biological and cultural makeup have adapted to those roles. Sudden changes to those roles may cause a stressful reaction in either sex, and according to this research women’s liberation has actually been more stressful to women than to men.
So what can we learn from this research report? First of all it informs us that the traditional gender roles gave women a higher subjective happiness than men, a finding that flies in the face of feminist theory. Second of all, it is inviting us to admit once and for all that there are innate differences between the sexes, and that gender equality does not necessarily mean gender sameness. This is not to say that we should go back in time and re-create stereotypical gender roles that offer little freedom to either sex. It simply means that the project to make men and women exactly the same is a futile one, and a better strategy would be to support men and women in their individual choices, and in having the lifestyles that they desire. If we do that, instead of shoving radical feminism down people’s throats, chances are that the subjective happiness for both sexes would increase.
Pelle Billing is an M.D. who writes and lectures about men’s issues and gender liberation beyond feminism.
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September 14th, 2009 at 9:37 am
I agree, although I hope that people will not interpret the findings to mean that women enjoy doing housework more than a regular 9 to 5. I think that feminists have misrepresented the reality of just how stressful and dissatisfying the workplace generally is and the results of the study demonstrate the impact that lack of information is having on women. I do not think women are necessarily any less happier than men in the same position, just that this was not something they expected. Being a housewife comes with its own baggage, but working outside of the home is a much different animal. There are more obstacles in a person’s way, more interactions with people who seem born to stress other people out, the monotony of the work itself, the commute, the wages, the competition. Anyone suddenly thrown into that environment will have a hard time coping. Look at how long it takes some college students to transition.
I wonder though whether the results are job-field related, meaning that women who work certain jobs are less happy than other women.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
@Toy Soldier
“Being a housewife comes with its own baggage,”
Indeed, but 50 years ago being a housewife was relatively easy compared to what most men were expected to do. Furthermore, when the children were at school, housewives did, actually, have much time to themselves.
@Pelle
Perhaps one reason why women have dropped down the happiness level is because they have been continually led to believe that they are badly off.
September 14th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
@Harry
“Indeed, but 50 years ago being a housewife was relatively easy compared to what most men were expected to do. Furthermore, when the children were at school, housewives did, actually, have much time to themselves.”
50 years ago women worked till they were married.
50 years ago women made wedding cakes and birthday cakes and house cleaned for others and took care of children for extra cash.
50 years ago you weren’t allowed to write left handed.
50 years ago headmasters of schools told women it was their fault the children misbehaved. 50 years ago women were giving their time to helping out in schools.
50 years ago mothers told their daughters, “Don’ work, for the day you do your husband will expect it and want the extra income”.
If you were raised by a grandmother as I was then 20 years ago you were told this.
Today of course those same 50’s women are taking care of their sick elder husbands just awaiting their death.
…………..
I am shocked quite frankly to see men online in New Zealand asking if women in the 50’s were happier.
Crickey’s women in the 50’s told men that the day they allow females a career is he day they get a divorce. Men didn’t listen.
September 14th, 2009 at 5:40 pm
Disaffection and dissatisfaction are the modus operandi of Feminism. It is no surprise that women are less happy than they were. They are taught almost from the cradle that they can have what men have, as though it were something to aspire to and demand. The supposition is that men have something better. Hah! Now women have discovered that men had and have it worse, they blame men for not telling them.
A small point Pelle. Research can indeed cast light into dark corners where imagination and scary tales have held sway, but we are hard pressed to know which ‘expert’ to believe. So many are in thrall to ideologies and political paymasters these days. Soon we will need addendums to the Abstracts, explaining the provenences of the researchers (especially the ubiquitous ‘et Al’ who seems to be involved in almost everyone’s studies)
September 14th, 2009 at 8:12 pm
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September 15th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Maybe part of the paradox is to do with the ‘paradox of choice’ – where having more options & opportunities can actually make us less happy. Faced with limited choices we tend to ‘make do’, if it doesn’t work out it’s not our fault, we didn’t have much choice in the matter.
However faced with a wider range of options & opportunities we feel obliged to make the most of them, & if things don’t work out we tend to think the fault lies with us – we had choices but made the wrong ones.
It puts me in mind of the ‘Chinese curse’ – may you live in interesting times.
September 15th, 2009 at 4:01 am
@Harry
Good point about women being told that they are badly off.
@Amfortas
Yes, it’s tremendously important to read the research with a critical mind and to check any affiliations the researchers might have.
September 15th, 2009 at 7:11 am
@ Dr. Billing,
Your bona fides (having MD) ads credibility to your writings. Some advocates start with a conclusion and then set out to prove it rather than starting with an open mind. Many decades ago feminsts promoted to wives “Go out and find yourself. There’s whole new world out there”. Some found a yellow brick road, others found a path of thorns. But it left many children with broken homes and now those mothers are unable to help their sons because the laws feminists enacted to trap their husbands now are trapping their sons.
September 15th, 2009 at 7:49 am
And, of course, questionnaire data concerned with gender differences is highly suspect, and easily subject to sexist bias; e.g. see …
http://www.angryharry.com/esdepressedfemales.htm
September 15th, 2009 at 9:04 am
Julie-
50 years ago men were suffering and dying in wars, dying in coal mines, getting maimed in manufacturing plants, getting shot at in the streets protecting law and order, running into burning buildings to save lives, sitting behind desks mind-numbingly crunching numbers, toiling away all their free time inventing the luxuries of life you take for granted….Oh wait, men are still doing all that. Men kill themselves more in their youth, do more dangerous and dirty jobs in their middle years, and die sooner in their later years. What more do you want? I can tell from your picture you’ve never done a hard days work in your life.
“50 years ago mothers told their daughters, “Don’ work, for the day you do your husband will expect it and want the extra income”. ”
I wish I would have been told that! But as a man, I only have two choices: work hard or work harder. Yeah, being a wage slave is glorious. I can see why women had it so hard having to follow their natural instincts to nest and raise children.
September 15th, 2009 at 10:49 am
@harry
I don’t know if Angry Harry and you are the same, but your posts are powerful. Have you looked at Title IX and how it has resulted in lawsuits and cutting men’s sports to the bone in schools.
Former DOJ official Jessica Gavora had written a good book about Title IX and its impact on education. Link:
http://www.nationalreview.com/lopez/lopez062102.asp
September 15th, 2009 at 11:07 pm
“Working outside the home is not as glamorous as feminism would have us believe.”
Ah, yes, how Betty Friedan ever convinced women that housewives had it worse than their men is a question for the ages. In ” The Feminine Mystique” she goes as far as to claim there was an epidemic of housewives suffering from boils on their arms, not from any physical cause but from the horrible anguish of “the problem with no name”!
September 16th, 2009 at 8:08 am
I have been “aware” of gender issues almost since my birth 1946. I was born with a twin sister and we watched the ways of the adults when were around age 2 or 3 – s thought of us. “cute sweet little girl” “tough little guy” whatever. Sugar and spice, Rats and snails
As many of you know I am a veteran with a 100 percent disability who feels lucky that his disability isn’t as bad as many of the young and older men who were in the military when I was, in the 60’s. 33,ooo blind, 45, ooo paralyzed I believe. 6 American women dead and 58,000 men. I was spared Viet Nam but unfortanately as a 22 year-old military police Sgt., I had physical injuries, slight brain damage, lots of PTSD. I have talked to teens about these issues in classrooms that profess to be about gender but rarely are. They are almost always about feminist BS
I have been lucky enough to have spent time with many disabled veterans, from many wars. I have never heard one say “damn, we men are ‘victims’ of chivalry and oppression.” When I hear women say “we didn’t get to take shop class in the 60’s and my great great grandma didn’t get to vote, I think of young father’s dying on the Titanic while women so old they are ready to die got to get on life boats. I think of what horror it must be to be liying on a cold, dark, mine floor knowing that help won’t arrive in time, that you may NEVER get out of there and never see your loved ones again as you starve to death, die of thirst, or struggle to breath, waiting for your death… Most gender studies classes pretend that a woman slapped (believe me, some have it coming just as some men do) is a tragedy and yet male lives lost, in work, war, suicide, in crime, YAWN, whatever, they were NOT “innocent women and children” so who cares?
When I hear women say “we have to work twice as hard as men to get half the recognition” I think “The average women is considered good, period, as a mom, or worker, or wife, she has respect… “She’s a woman, women are kind, nurturing, empatheic… the average man is seen as a loser by Alpha men and by almost all women”
When I hear “1 in 4 women are raped or sexually assaulted” I know where that lie came fom – My son heard that on the SF campus yesterday… called me about it… when I read “Reviving Ophelia” by Mary Piper teaching girls and women how their lives have little value in our oppressive society I notice she writes – on her forward, how 1 in 4 girls attemps suicide. She not only doesn’t explain that most of those are scratches or calls for help because girls know that their tears and fears matter, she also hides that boys actually, you know frickin DIE 4 times as often.
Reading BACKLASH by Faludi last week I see her tryiing to trash Warren Farrell’s rep and then she MSLeads her readers by reminding them that WF started helping women because he thought his mother’s death had something to do with gender issues [while she - as the first quote of Professing Feminism by Daphne Patai and Noretta Koertge reminds us
'Lying is done with words, and with silence' -- Adrienne Rich] leaves out the part where his brother’s death also reminded him that gender issues take men’s lives and maybe gender issues are not just women’s issues but men’s issues as well. Faludi ike Steinem and others turned their backs on Farrell because he stopped only caring about one gender and started caring about two, and like women scorned, as in “hell hath no fury like… ” they try to emasculate him, insult, demean, a form of abuse and control that most men fall for but Warren got over after a little time.
And while men are taught not to complain, not to even notice (Think of Monty Python’s “Holy Grail” where the knight loses an arm and calls it a flesh wound) … what would girls say when they started school and noticed they had no doors on bathrooms or showers, or that if a girl spoke of a boy sexually she might be beaten with a wooden paddle leaving marks, and yet a boy could grab her by the breasts, or kick her in the crotch, sometimes “just because” and the worst that would happen is to lose recess while others smirked.
Today and when I was a boy, girls kitting boys in the crotch or kicking them in schools, in movies is as likely to be met with a laugh as punishment – even it reported… and yet we hear nothing of such things as sexual assaults … touch a girls bra strap, sexual harassment, kick a boy in the balls ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
If you don’t thing such things matter regarding sexual self esteem then you will never figure out why boys feel the must pay for dates. We are beasts, vaginas are holy, pay to enter – few of us end up with women who don’t think “giving sex” is a “favor” as in sexual favors a term not applied from men to women.
Thousands of men, tens of thousands, have Posttraumatic Stress Disorder from work and dangerous jobs and yet women are more likely to attack their male partners than are males to attack their female partners. And yes, ,the crazy man who will beat his wife and weaker males as well is more likely to injure or kill his wife than for her to kill him but … the deaths of women and men are not enough to claim such deaths as a gender issue.
I am amazed that after all the criticism given men, the abuse, the stress at work, the tens of thousands living with PTSD, the thousands homeless, that there are actually very few acts of violents when you consider what men are dealing with compared to how many blow up. Millions of men with decades of stress and it’s women who have the health centers and safe houses.
It’s men who have suffered more abuse and horrors in our culture from the Titanic to work and to war. It’s boys who receive most injuries and death at the hands of a parent and it’s the female parent who is the perp most often. But this is not what our children are learning.
It was not my twin sister or my fiance the same age that got a letter in the mail to go into the military or jail… it was not my twin sister or fiance who lost their sight, or ended up dead from the war. But it’s almost every week I hear from those women, my peers from “back in the day” who claim that only women have been harmed the last 40 years. They lie.
“For every one torturer, there are a thousand people ready to risk their lives to save another. For every soldier who shoots in a neighborhood, there are a thousand companeros who help and protect each other. Isabel Allende
It’s time to march in to classrooms and kick the lying bigots out. It’s time to vote those who teach “men as the enemy” out of office. It’s decades past time for men to start supporting their brothers as our sisters target our sexuality, tell us we are testosterone poisoned, Y chromasome flawed, – as our editors will allow any article proclaiming female superiorty to be published but censor such articles if they show males superior in any way.
SD
September 16th, 2009 at 8:13 am
Ya, I know, I spelled some words wrong, but MOST of the facts are 99% correct so go with that. smile
September 16th, 2009 at 8:33 am
Globalman,
That portion of your post which has value is, in my opinion, completely washed away upon encountering words like “kill” and “assassinate.” The “one step forward, but then two steps back!” syndrome.
You provide ideological ammunition to our enemies, I fear. I REALLY wish you wouldn’t.
September 16th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
It doesn’t help me, Globalman, to think of women as having the mental capacity of a 10 year old boy. It simply annoys me. If we are to make an arguement we must lift ourselves out of the playground and taunts of ‘mine’s bigger than yours’.
Half of humanity, statistically, is on the lower half of the intelligence distribution curve and they ain’t all sporting frocks and bras. In the other half we find the Illuminati that you speak off along with glitterati of various professions, mostly all toeing the femi-party line.
As for the assassination bizzo, it may well come to that. The tensions in our societies are reaching a critical point. It was not that long ago that a chap took a rifle to a car park opposite a Judge’s chamber window, waited patiently for said legal ‘Professional’ to stand in view and took the bastard out. I can remember the howls of protest from a few MRAs then; and the cheers from some others.
@ Stephen DeLuca: as ever, a cogent and evocative essay. You express well the real and justified angst that men have. 60 years ago women had it tough. I can remember my mother’s washing day routine of back-beaking work and the worries and difficulties of shopping in half-empty stores and using a ration book. But we all had it rough back then. The men around me that I was supposed to look up to, in the streets and the jobs, were a maimed lot. They were the ones who came home from war. Others didn’t. But women ‘captured’ the emotions and the sympathies. men, as usual, were told to ’suck it up’.
Men gave women washing machines and dryers, and kitchens; and settees, with a TV to sit and watch; microwaves and all the food they could eat from every corner of the world; cars to go visiting their friends in. We took their housework and reduced their load by 90%. We toiled to make a far better life for women.
But was it enough?
In return they gave us whine and complaint and an ideology of deciet and mendacity and blame.
Well, NO MORE.
Bugger the Illuminati. It is the individual, modern woman-in general who has a case to answer.
September 17th, 2009 at 7:51 am
Globalman-
Under the assumption that you are 99% correct about all of your beliefs, you must understand that other things matter other than just facts and truths when conveying information. I’m not saying this is right or how it should be, but it just is. You must adapt how you teach to accomadate your audience. If you make some of us uncomfortable with the fringe beliefs you advocate then you may be a genius, but one who will never be listened to. It would do you, our movement, and other posters justice, if you didn’t try to cram all your ideas down our throats all at once. I don’t deny that you see the bigger picture better than me, after all, how could I know that without spending an impossible amount of time fact checking your assertations, but I do know this, you can’t teach someone algerbra before you teach them addition and subtraction. Please frame your arguments in a way that more directly impact the normal individuals life, and then draw us further into the light of truth slowly. If you shine the light too bright, too fast, everyone will just squint and look away. The things that are just as important as facts and truths are human qualities that aren’t always logical, like respect and patience.
As for your Illlumanati conspiracy, my main problem with such enveloping far-reaching theories is that large encompassing truths are rarely so neatly tied up in a such a pretty little bow. I believe things happen more organically with less central control. I believe in many of the things you talk about, just not their highly organized, systematic, and planned origins. Amazing things can emerge from chaos. Take humans evolving from single cell organisms. It seems crazy, so crazy many people, including MRA’s say, “Well its proof of God!”. No, it just proof that complex things immerge from more mundane circumstances. Don’t ever stop posting, just don’t be offended by push back, and please consider other points of view in evaluating your own belief system.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:01 pm
Amfortas,
“It is the individual, modern woman-in general who has a case to answer.”
You can not hold children responsible for their actions. If you expect women to take responsibility for their actions you will be disappointed. The position that women have a far lower capacity for logic and reason is not a ‘yours is bigger than mine’ argument. There is plenty of evidence for it.
If you say ‘bugger the Illuminati’ and believe you can solve any issues by dealing with women then I should take my leave. Your position is hopeless because you are not addressing the real problem. You can talk to women and politicians all you like. Nothing will change because neither has any power. I would have thought that 30 years of MRAs would have made that pretty obvious.
Jay Black Says:
“It would do you, our movement, and other posters justice, if you didn’t try to cram all your ideas down our throats all at once.”
Jay, I have told you less than 10% of the story. I have posted here pretty much the bare minimum it is going to take for men to start to ‘wake up’. If I told the next 10% it would ‘blow your mind’. The very, very first thing MRAs might wish to know is that they have all the rights they need. Period. If MRAs do not wish to learn how to exercise those rights, then so be it. “Let he who is ignorant remain ignorant.” If you do not know your rights you can not exercise them.
By the way, your arguement is that “men who wish to remain ignorant should be spoken to in such a way as they can remain ignorant and blame the person presenting the message”. Not a good way for a man to make his way through life if you ask me.
“I believe things happen more organically with less central control.” Yes. You do. And you would be incorrect. How much study have you done to come to this conclusion? And why would you wish to believe something opposite of what many presidents and prime ministers have said? The Illuiminati is not hiding. They rely on men to do exactly what you do. Believe a lie you were programmed with in school. ‘Coincidence theory’.
“please consider other points of view in evaluating your own belief system.”
You have no idea who many viewpoints I have reviewed in the last 18 months. I have done about 1,500 hours of reading, listening, watching and talking to such a wide range of people it’s not funny. Some guys like Eustice Mullins have been doing this for 50 years. If you have never heard of Eustice Mullins, google him.
“You must adapt how you teach to accomadate your audience.”
I have had many people call me the most talented communicator they have ever met. Please do not think that I put one word here that is not very well placed. That you do not know it is well placed is not the point. I am a master at persuading people to a point of view. It is just that men have a great resistance to some points of view. It is because of the programming you have been subject to all your life.
September 18th, 2009 at 10:26 am
By the way, your arguement is that “men who wish to remain ignorant should be spoken to in such a way as they can remain ignorant and blame the person presenting the message”. Not a good way for a man to make his way through life if you ask me.
Thats not my argument at all. I’m just simply saying that you need to ease people into your theories in a more sequential and deliberate way. I can only assume that you arrived at the above characicature of what I said by consciencly or unconsciecly twisting my words to suit your apparent hardened view of who you think I am, which is just another sheep. An obedient closeminded fool. I would think just questioning you, despite the whimsical desire I have to accept every last thing you have to say, because it is cool man, would be proof otherwise.
Also, I tried to show you a lot of respect in my post, by politely disagreeing with some of your methods of discourse. I did not doubt the validity of your beliefs, as they are not in my areas of expertise, so why you seem so agitated at me is beyond me, other than maybe the cognitive dissonence your ego is feeling bugs you a little. In much of the rest of your post, your arrogance simply offends me, which is part of my point.
“I have had many people call me the most talented communicator they have ever met. Please do not think that I put one word here that is not very well placed. That you do not know it is well placed is not the point. I am a master at persuading people to a point of view. It is just that men have a great resistance to some points of view.”
Are you 7 years old?
And lets not make this into a pissing match. I to can make grandoise claims. I bet I can even make bigger and more grandoise claims then you!
“It is because of the programming you have been subject to all your life.”
And how long have you been researching conspiracy theories? Much of your adult life I assume…mmm…interesting. You haven’t been “programmed” by the repeated and thorough study or your particular esoteric area of expertise have you. Of course not. After all, your different from everyone else, better even! Being open minded goes both ways buddy. You’re just as programmed as the next guy, don’t kid yourself. Accepting that we possess psychological biases and defence mechanisms is crucial to truely freeing our minds. If you say you have no biases, then your biases are the worst of all, deep seated, subconsience, fully integrated, programmed biases. The type “mind controlled” people have.
“I believe things happen more organically with less central control.” Yes. You do. And you would be incorrect. How much study have you done to come to this conclusion?
I’ve studied science, biology, and evolution my whole life. The universe is pretty neat, and sorry, it is just a mathmatical coincidence. That is fact, read a book about physics, atronomy, and the universe.
If you read “Guns, Germs, and Steel”, which you probably have, you’ll also see history has a lot simpler, sceintific and geographic explanation then you would think. But you probably reject that book outright, as it doesn’t take into account your preaccepted beliefs.
“Believe a lie you were programmed with in school.”
I rejected everything school taught me before I accepted it. I’m a natual dissenter, an agitator against norms of thinking. I have asperger syndrome, and think primarliy in pictures, not words as school would have liked. If I can’t see it in my minds eye, it doesn’t register as true. Overcomplicated plans are the worst ones, because too many things can go wrong. When I visualize your NWO illumaniti paradigm, I see a big hot complicated mess, a secret and enormous plan that is highly unlikely to stay so smoothly on the tracks generation after generation, unbeknown to the laymen. Amazing claims need to be backed up with amazing evidence. I reject first, then accept, period, part of who I am, before I even entered school. Just like I’m doing to you, I’ve done to my mother, my father, my teachers, and strangers. You have to earn my stamp of approval, which means nothing to you I’m sure, but that don’t change that you still ain’t gettin my stamp.
I don’t doubt your I.Q., just your E.Q. I don’t care how much research you’ve done if you don’t doubt yourself. UFO advocates study that phenomenon their whole lives, and although I believe in the possiblilty of UFOs, until you show me a little green man, check yourself when you enter a house of ideas. Bad data in equals bad data out. Many brilliant minds have chased bad ideas their whole lives to the point where they died unknown and unrespected. Continue to chase your pursuit of turning lead into gold all you want, just don’t expect everyone to obediently listen to your esoteric views and swallow them whole heartedly, especially if you want to color all of your arguments with your ego. If you don’t think you have room to improve, well then, what can I say. That does not take away what I have learned from you, it just means I don’t believe all your hype as much as you do.
September 20th, 2009 at 6:04 am
I am amazed that only one or two guys opposed or commented to globalman’s statement that women have the mentality of a 7-10 yr old boy; and then you wonder why feminists believe that men suppress women, and are constantly conspiring against them.
Another thought to consider relative to the decline of the working woman’s happiness, is the fact that most working women who are married with children, are still expected to cook/ clean/ take care of the kids along with having a job. While your husband does the dishes a few times a week and thinks he deserves a prize? please. You are the one with the mentality of child. Grow out of you sexism and into the 21st century.
September 21st, 2009 at 3:08 am
Globalman,
“You can’t show me ONE female genius. You can’t show me ONE masterpiece created by a woman. EVER!”
If you were to take a little time to read something other than negative articles about women, you would know that your statement is ludicrous. It is true that before the last century women did not create or invent much, but that had a lot to do with the fact that they were simply not allowed to patent anything, or go to school. Actually, it is still like that in many places around the world. I’m sure many of those women indeed have the mental capacity of a child, but plenty of American men and women today are also not that bright. Your two examples of those idiots calling 911, have nothing to do with women as a whole. I could sit here all day and type about the idiotic things men have done, but I don’t need to, you know it happens every day, but that does not mean all men are stupid. Your bias opinions are obviously a result of your personal experiences, and it shows in your emotional over reactions. You talk about women being easily brainwashed into a certain way of thinking?… well you fall into that category too, unfortunately. You seem pretty good at researching whatever you want, so go ahead and do some research on the achievements of women, and never mind some of those feminist web pages, they are simply filled with heated remarks, similar to yours, about the downfalls of the opposite sex.
“Dogs have less intelligence than men too but you don’t see any women claiming men suppress or conspire against dogs now do you?”
Comparing the opposite sex to animals, that’s a classic radical feminist statement about men, maybe your reading too much of that garbage, and becoming what you hate.
I know you wont take that much time to read this, but maybe others will:
Barbara McClintock discovered that certain genetic material shifted it’s location in the chromosomes from generation to generation. Her research was a major contributor to the discovery of DNA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_McClintock
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosalind_Franklin
Marie Curie, creator of a theory of radioactivity (a term coined by her), techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, and the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium. It was also under her personal direction that the world’s first studies were conducted into the treatment of neoplasms (cancers), using radioactive isotopes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie
Grace Hopper developed the first English programming language, COBOL.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper
Gertrude Elion developed treatments for luekemia, AIDS, and other diseases.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_B._Elion
Amanda Jones (1835 – 1914) invented the first automatic safety burner, and a vacuum method of canning food called the Jones Process, which became the standard canning method in this country.
Eliza Murfey received 23 patents between 1870 and 1875, including several for materials and processes for packing journals, bearings, and pistons in steam engines.
Kevlar, a steel-like fiber used in radial tires, crash helmets, and bulletproof vests, Stephanie Kwolek
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephanie_Kwolek
Ada Lovelace: The “first programmer”, encoding an algorithm in a form to be processed by a machine. She also foresaw the capability of computers to go beyond mere calculating or number-crunching while others, including Babbage himself, focused only on these capabilities.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ada_Lovelace
Clara Barton founded the American Red Cross
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Barton
Patricia Billings received a patent in 1997 for an indestructible, fire resistant building material called Geobond.
computerized telephone switching system/ wireless communication,
Hedy Lamarr
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hedy_Lamarr
Non-reflecting glass, Katherine Blodett
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katharine_Burr_Blodgett
Dishwasher, Josephine Cochran
Electric hot water heater, Ida Forbes
Medical syringe, Letitia Geer
Submarine lamp and telescope, Sarah Mather
Windshield wiper, Mary Anderson
Margaret Sanger discovered that hormones prevented ovulation in rabbits. In 1950, while in her 80s, Sanger underwrote the research necessary to create the first human birth control pill.
Lise Meitner was part of the team that discovered nuclear fussion, an achievement for which her colleague Otto Hahn was awarded the Nobel Prize. Meitner is often mentioned as one of the most glaring examples of women’s scientific achievement overlooked by the Nobel committee. A 1997 Physics Today study concluded that Meitner’s omission was “a rare instance in which personal negative opinions apparently led to the exclusion of a deserving scientist” from the Nobel.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lise_Meitner
“an instance in which personal negative opinions apparently led to the exclusion of a deserving scientist”…
Negative views of women, like yours, are a disease infecting and hindering the incredible potential of the human race.
September 21st, 2009 at 5:26 am
@ ageb
“I am amazed that only one or two guys opposed or commented to globalman’s statement that women have the mentality of a 7-10 yr old boy; and then you wonder why feminists believe that men suppress women, and are constantly conspiring against them.”
Two points on this. One, Globalmans statement is clearly off the mark and I do say that not only do I stand in opposition, I also issue a challenge here and now for any scientific evidence that this is true be presented here within 48 hours or I will remove the post.
That this comment went past me unnoticed was a failure on my part for which I apologize to readers.
One of the most attractive elements of the MRM for me is the conspicuous integrity and pursuit of truth in most advocates. This statement, unless supported with something other than the writers opinion, is a clear slap in the face to those admirable qualities.
But I also take exception to the idea that this justifies the erroneous beliefs about men that feminists hold. Actual misogyny is and always has been an extreme minority viewpoint. Feminists don’t hold those beliefs because they are espoused by a handful of men, but because holding those beliefs serves as a political weapon that they can wield to gain power.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:45 am
Men take pleasure in the fact of their homes and the lives there in. They come home from work and see their families grow from week to week, and it makes working in that crummy job worth it.
Cleary a generalization, still I wonder what it is that makes working that crummy job worth it for women.
My dad always took us to the cottage for the summer. I remember him fondly for what he provided. He had his demons as did most men who came home from that war (WWII). My father was molded by the desire to provide and he was sustained by our happiness with what he provided. It was a palpable bond. My mother was a stay at home mom. This was a sacrifice she also made for us. Supper at the table together was the beginning of the evening together. The round the supper table discussions which my mom attended were “formative” experiences for all of us.
September 22nd, 2009 at 11:47 am
Clarification:
My mom always attended those roundtable discussions.
September 24th, 2009 at 10:19 am
[...] article they wanted me to comment on was The Paradox of Declining Female Happiness, that I first wrote for the blog and then reposted on Men’s News [...]
October 20th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
I’m not surprised that women are less and less happy in our modern society at all.
If I was told that I won the lottery for a certain amount, and was strung along for a while even filling out the paperwork, only to find out I was deceived, I’d be pretty depressed too. And probably pretty damn angry.
The only real difference in the above scenario is that I was promised something that I didn’t get. And that women were promised something that they DID get, and are now not satisfied with THAT. It’s the old ‘grass is greener on the other side’ scenario. Except that now, because the whole dynamic has been upset, many women are being forced to work to make ends meet, and have less of a choice in the matter.
Welcome to the real world.
Nothing is ever good enough, it seems. Irrational expectations lead to inevitable disappointment.