Mylai, I think that you’re wrong in your assertion that women today have the same levels of “sadness” as their ancestors. Women, and men, today have much more leisure time than their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents ever considered possible. With idle time comes the opportunity to reflect on what went right and what went wrong with one’s life. If you’re up before dawn and constantly working until bedtime then you’re too tired to be sad. We also now have an entire swath of our culture devoted to telling us how “they” are better off, that “their” lives are better, and that “we’re” a bunch of pathetic losers. Additionally, one major political party devotes its energies toward making people miserable in order to garner more power for the state.
Our ancestors didn’t have the constant barrage of negativity that is the norm today. They actually had to live through difficult times (WWI, WWII, the Great Depression, the Influenza Pandemic, the Cold War, child mortality rates far in excess of today) while we’re living the proverbial “Life of Riley”. Men and Women are both “sadder” today because of the overwhelming negativity that they’re exposed to on a daily basis. They shouldn’t be “sadder” because things are the best that they’ve ever been but “sadness” is emotional, it’s not rational or logical.
