Perhaps you've heard about the recent study and subsequent news hype about the happiness of women in this country. Maria Shriver was a guest reporter on NBC's "Today" show last week and brought up the study in her segment, "A Woman's Nation." I have seen numerous articles and television segments since, and it has been an intriguing -- if a little frustrating -- insight into women and life in this country.

Wharton School professors Betsey Stevenson and Justin Wolfers conducted the study and the outcome, in its simplest explanation, holds that women in this country today are less happy then they were in 1972.

Now, with just that elucidation it seems like pretty sad news (as if we needed any more), but interesting none the less. The arguments about this outcome are all over the board and some of the questions produced by this study are worth conversation. Though Wolfers and Stevenson admit the findings in their study show women may be more unhappy now than in 1972, the findings do not give any explanation as to why.

Some of the more vocal arguments about the study claim that feminism and the women's rights movement are to blame for the current unhappiness of women in our country. As if to say increased responsibility has driven down our overall happiness and, more important, that we shouldn't have rocked the boat in the first place. People in this camp feel women should have been perfectly happy as either underpaid secretaries or housewives and doing our husbands laundry until the day we die? Give me a break. It's called equality. Say it with me now... E-Q-U-A-L-I-T-Y.

I asked a woman I know well, we'll call her Gloria, about her initial thoughts on this study and the response it received. Having been alive during the '70s, I figured she may have better insight into "happiness factors" of 1972.

"One thought I had about why women might be more unhappy now is that there is such a vocal right-wing political movement to hinder women's progress," Gloria said. "I was young in 1972, but I felt more hopeful about the future of women than I do now. All those legal changes of the time (Roe v. Wade, equal employment opportunity, etc.) and we still have so far to go.

"I also feel that the portrayal of women in music, fashion, is more sexist and demeaning now than it was in the 70's. Perhaps feminism was more vocal and no one wanted to raise the ire of the women's rights movement (or perhaps I'm getting old and less tolerant of exposed boobs but note the rise in plastic surgery and breast enlargements.)"

Valid and interesting points. So have we come "a long way baby" or are we sliding backwards down a slippery slope?

Today, many women expect more out of themselves and more is expected of them than in 1972. Most women don't set their sights on becoming a housewife; we want a life and a career and money of our own, so for us to be happy we want a college degree, a good job and a place all our own. When we've decided we want to, we'll get married, have kids and perhaps move to the suburbs. So yes, we want more for ourselves and along with all of that comes inevitable responsibility and disappointment, but that's life. Just look at Melinda Gates, the woman could do nothing but sit around and recover from plastic surgery procedures if she wanted to, but instead she's constantly out bettering the world for people she's never met. Now that's inspiring.

Women have to worry about our biological clocks, we are the ones who feel we may have to choose between what we want in our careers and what we want in our families and we are the ones that are still, yes still, bumping into the glass ceiling. Nobody ever says he's a "working dad." So maybe we're so unhappy because despite a college degree, despite a career we're still expected to be awesome at motherhood, housework, cooking, etc.

What we want has to mold around what's expected of us. That's not nearly so much the case for men, and if you think otherwise you're in dire need of a reality check. Calm down, I'm not saying that great fathers don't exist, of course they do, but they don't have the same pressures that great mothers do.

"Our expectations must be higher than they were in 1972. Then, women wanted a helpful husband and a decent job," remarks Gloria. "Now we want equal pay, equal jobs, and equal output from our husband. Not just taking the kids for an hour while I run 25 errands, but 50/50 childcare. Even if we have a participating spouse, a dual-career household is running on empty most of the time."

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