To the people who have claim that feminism has failed, here is another reason to add to your bucket list. The happiness of women from the advent of feminism and feminist rights has been on a decreasing curve in the past century.

Women are unhappier than men, women are unhappier than their predecessors, and currently women are at the peak of liberation and empowerment than ever before. Since the 70s, women in the US and Europe have reported feeling less satisfied with their lives. The “paradox of declining female happiness” pointed out by economists Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers is till now the strongest argument that women’s happiness is less than men both absolutely and relatively. Although the reason for this increasing decrease in unhappiness is unclear there are many assumptions. Studies for the same have not been conducted in each country, but the phenomenon is considered to be a global effect.

Studying happiness may seem frivolous, but serious academics have long been calling for more testing about people’s emotional well-being, especially in the United States. In 2013, the National Academy of Sciences issued a report recommending that federal statistics and surveys, which normally deal with income, spending, health and housing, include a few extra questions on happiness because it would lead to better policy that affects people’s lives.

When Swiss women gained suffrage, the country’s citizens voted in a referendum stating women deserve equal pay for equal work. Swiss states with a high proportion of votes in favor of the amendment were recorded as having a small gender wage gap some years later. But strangely, working women in areas with strong traditional values – where most people had voted against equal pay – were happier than working women in liberal Swiss states. Women in liberal communities are less happy and notice discrimination because they automatically compare their opportunities and salary to everyone else around them, men included.

Traditionally minded women perhaps base their identities more firmly on their gender roles, and think only of other women when they evaluate their privilege and opportunities. Stevenson and Wolfers suggest that socioeconomic effects, such as the breakdown in social cohesion, increased anxiety due to the increasing complexity of modern life, and economic uncertainty may differentially affect women.

Taking inspiration from Kahneman’s book, they consider whether the manner by which women define “success” and “happiness” for is wrongly deduced, does attaining success necessarily entail happiness? A more important question asked by Stevenson and Wolfers is: Are the changes brought by women’s movement for empowerment and equality an explanation for the decline in female happiness?

Women’s movement itself has made women less happy, by leading women to think that they are not “measuring up” in a world where women are more often expected to work for pay, and to compete in that sphere with men.

Women with full time jobs, including the world’s top scientists and engineers, and even women in so-called “egalitarian” relationships, still do about 20 hours of housework a week. That’s the equivalent of a part-time job. Studies have shown that performing household chores makes men statistically less likely to become depressed, but contributes to depression in women.

Taking on housework seems to encourage men to judge themselves as generally likeable and fair minded, kindly reducing their wives’ load. On the other hand, taking on housework seems to make women feel exploited. Another reason for increasing depression is one involves marriage: married people are known to be happier than unmarried people, and this holds more strongly for women than for men. A falling marriage rate would likely contribute to lower relative female happiness, including increasing divorce rates which are becoming a global phenomenon.

The decline in women’s happiness is a trend seen across groups – both working and stay-at-home moms, for those married and divorced, the young and old, and across the education spectrum; and these same trends appeared across industrialized countries for which there are sufficient happiness data. As Norah Vincent discovered in her book Self Made Man, where she spent one year living as a man, females are very unhappy when living a masculine life. McInnes stated that many women who try to measure their happiness through masculine achievements will probably be unhappy and frustrated. Money is not the only factor for happiness, happiness levels have a lot to do with mental health, physical health and personal relationships, while mental illness is the biggest source of misery.

Dr. Susan Nolen-Hoeksema research on women’s strengths falls into four distinct categories. These categories have been shown to increase a person’s happiness and resilience: mental strengths, identity strengths, emotional strengths, and relational strengths. While it appears as though women’s happiness levels have been on the decline for decades, women also possess very specific strengths that, when leveraged, promote not only happiness, but also resilience.