Women happier with work life than men

Students, homemakers, working adults and retired people are all “somewhat happy” with their lives – in that order, Arnab Mitra writes.

Students, homemakers, working adults and retired people are all “somewhat happy” with their lives – in that order.

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So far, so good! But the fine print of the Hindustan Times- MaRS Happiness Survey hides several interesting nuggets of information. Women, for example, are happier with their professional lives – and especially their incomes – than men.

And contrary to popular perception, our survey shows, the average homemaker doesn’t really lead a life of drudgery. A vast majority said they are quite happy with the level of appreciation they receive for the work they do for their households.

Interestingly, the youngest group of homemakers (in the 18-25 age bracket) and the senior citizens (60+ years) receive the least appreciation. But neither group is actually unhappy but their happiness is "under stress". Those in between (26-60) are the most satisfied.

Here’s another interesting tidbit that sociologists will salivate over. Female students are considerably happier with the quality of their education than males. Here, too, both groups said they were “somewhat happy” on this score, but the females (index score 786) were quite close to an unequivocal “happy” rating while their male counterparts (index score 717) are closer to “happiness under stress”.