yet another thing to blame on feminism

Nytimes article on how women appear to be less happy than men these days. The explanation the article gives for this decline in happiness: "women now have a much longer to-do list than they once did."

Some highlights from the article, He’s Happier, She’s Less So:

In the early 1970s, women reported being slightly happier than men. Today, the two have switched places.

Since the 1960s, men have gradually cut back on activities they find unpleasant. They now work less and relax more...

Over the same span, women have replaced housework with paid work — and, as a result, are spending almost as much time doing things they don’t enjoy as in the past. Forty years ago, a typical woman spent about 23 hours a week in an activity considered unpleasant, or 40 more minutes than a typical man. Today, with men working less, the gap is 90 minutes...

Women are not actually working more than they were 30 or 40 years ago. They are instead doing different kinds of work. They’re spending more time on paid work and less on cleaning and cooking...

...the average time devoted to dusting has fallen significantly in recent decades. There haven’t been any dust-related technological breakthroughs, so houses are probably just dirtier than they used to be. I imagine that the new American dustiness affects women’s happiness more than men’s.

And the bottom line: women are working more, men less, and yet:

Inside of families, men still haven’t figured out how to shoulder their fair share of the household burden. Instead, we’re spending more time on the phone and in front of the television.