Progress for backlash?

A new study by W. Bradford Wilcox and Steven L. Nock seems to suggest that women who agree with and enact traditional gender roles are happier than "progress-minded women." \nI guess it's time I renounce my column and get back to the kitchen where I belong ... at least once I've saved up enough money here to buy a complete set of Martha Stewart cookbooks. It's cheaper than a lifetime of therapy and more effective. \nOr not. \nBut that's exactly what the number-crunchers of a recently-published study want me to believe. The study showed that only 38 of the 15 percent of women who worked outside the home and agreed most strongly with feminist ideals consider themselves happy, as opposed to 41 percent of other working women. For homemakers, the numbers were 52 percent of nonprogressive women versus 45 percent of progressive women.\nAlso according to the researchers (although the numbers were conspicuously absent), for happiness, it doesn't matter whether or not men help with the housework; it's whether women have sensitive husbands. \nStories and columns are popping up everywhere in response to this study proclaiming an anti-feminist revolution. The headlines? "Wanting equality makes women unhappy," and "The return of the happy housewife," among others. \nNumbers can prove whatever the interpreter wants them to prove, and it seems that the result of this study was a foregone conclusion. \nPundits are going so far as to theorize that women are unhappy because they have choices. Or, as Slate columnist Meghan O'Rourke says, "having more choices about what you want makes you less likely to be happy with whatever choice you end up settling on." \nIf someone were to suggest that democracy makes people unhappy because there are too many choices, we'd (rightfully) call that person a fascist.\nHappiness, after all, is not something quantifiable like income, \neducation or birth rates. Happiness is in the eye of the beholder. \nAnd I'd say it's a safe bet that progress-minded individuals are less likely to be happy in general. That's why they're progress-minded. If you're happy with the way things are, you don't push for change. The heart of progress is dissatisfaction.\nThe researchers involved, however, don't consider that. Instead, it is their conclusion that "more traditional beliefs and practices regarding gender play a positive role in the quality and expressive character of many women's marriages." \nThey continue to suggest that women with "egalitarian gender role attitudes" might cause their own unhappiness by nagging their husbands too much and being "too critical."\nThe analysis completely omits any institutional critique of marriage, and instead places the blame squarely on the women who dare to want more. The headline could just as easily read "the institution of marriage depressing for women who desire equality," making the point that feminism is still necessary. Those numbers are meaningless without ideological manipulation behind them.\nThe only thing the study really demonstrates is the ideological investment of its authors.