By many objective measures the lives of women have improved hugely in the last fifty years. Yet a number of surveys including the US National Bureau of Economic Research have shown that women's happiness has fallen both absolutely and relative to men. And some are starting to wonder whether we're making a mistake in putting measures of political progress above personal fulfilment.
Should we refocus feminist goals on developing and enhancing female values rather than mistakenly focussing on delivering male equivalence? Might the very notion of equality itself be a misleading goal when instead we should be looking to enhance and deepen the experience of being female? Or, should falling levels of happiness in fact be seen as positive indications of women's raised expectations as well as their willingness to speak out about dissatisfaction?