Surveys Show Women Have Become Unhappier Since Feminism Was Introduced To Our Society

Some of the most well-known feminist icons spent much of their adult life teaching women about the freedom that comes with feminism. "A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle," Gloria Steinem famously said. Germaine Greer claimed that withholding sexual freedom from women was stopping them from reaching fulfillment in their lives. But the more that women chose to live their life without any men and live a sexually free lifestyle, the unhappier they got, according to surveys. Could it be that feminism isn't making women as happy as we thought it would?

Surveys Show Women Have Become Unhappier Since Feminism Was Introduced to Our Society

If you ask someone if feminism was a net positive or net negative for our society, they would likely say a net positive. We've been programmed for a long time to believe that feminism has been a good thing for America, especially for women. A survey showed that 58.6% of people responded that feminism has benefitted American families, but research suggests that feminism has actually made women more unhappy.

Surveys have shown that people who support feminism, have liberal worldviews, and don't attend religious services report the lowest levels of satisfaction in their lives. A paper shared by Yale Law School in 2008 showed that women have become much less happy since the 1970s. Even though women's lives have arguably improved (having access to education, having freedom in the workforce, better pay, etc.), their subjective well-being has declined.

It forces us to ask the question: Is feminism good for women? There's a lot of data out there to suggest that, no, it hasn't been good for women. The feminist movement has convinced women that they are equal to men in all regards and that there is more fulfillment to be found in focusing heavily on your career and sacrificing your family and children. It has also taught women that they don't need a man at all and that men just slow them down. But men and women were created complementarily, and we were made to create family and society together.

Feminism also convinces women that their reproductive abilities play no role whatsoever in their preferences, their personalities, and their desires. It's no wonder so many women have become unhappier than ever—we have been convinced to deny our biology and replace it with a modern take on womanhood. Perhaps if we returned to a more natural, traditional way of thinking about women's roles in society, we would see the happiness meter spike back up.