Do those studies really demonstrate that? No one was asking women of our grandparent's era if they were happy or unhappy. Those studies are usually asking about points in modern women's lives compared to other points in those same lives. Most people were happier in childhood than in their adult career lives. Most of us were happier in college than in our working lives. Adulthood is hard. Work is work. Those studies are flawed in their premises, IME. I also think those studies intend to prove a bias that women are happier without careers; that women are happier in those old circumscribed "women's work" tropes.