Women Were Happier Working at Home? This Just Doesn't Feel Right

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.

A survey released Monday by the Bureau of Economic Research (and reported in today's NY Times) shows women were happier when fewer of them worked outside the home.

At least, that seems to be the gist of the survey's results. The Times poses the question whether this means, in turn, that men have done better by women's advancement in the workplace than have women?

I am not comfortable with that question, at least the way it is framed.

First, happiness is in and of itself a concept incapable of being precisely measured. Second, why pit men and women against each other in this way? It's silly. Men don't lose out when the women in their lives make economic gains. Sons, husbands and male partners benefit when female members of the household earn more money and have better jobs. End of discussion!

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