I love it when men pontificate about what is wrong with women. Really (not really). I mean it (I don’t mean it).

Love. It.

That’s why I was so pleased to see Ross Douthat’s New York Times column today in which he discusses a new paper that a couple of economists have written, detailing how American women are less happy today than their 1960s counterparts (and also less happy than men).

Douthat walks a very thin line, trying very hard not to come off as sexist while basically coming off as sexist. As far as I can tell, his main point is that society should make it easier to balance raising children with work, which is hard to argue against. But he suggests we start by socially stigmatizing fathers who don’t participate in their kids’ lives. While I agree that fathers should be full and active participants, emotionally and financially, I would suggest that social stigma is hardly the way to achieve happier women.

• Here are some alternative ideas:
• universal health care;
• affordable child care;
• quality education for all kids;
• college tuition that doesn’t bury graduates in debt until they are well into middle age; and
• a living wage.

In the 1960s, regardless of your position on mothers in the workplace, it was possible to maintain a middle class family on one blue-collar income. Today, it is pretty much impossible.

If I had to venture a guess at why women report themselves unhappy, in addition to all of the factors that Douthat puts forth, I would add a general sense of economic insecurity. Even before our economy entered its current state, we had the first generation in the history of our country that isn’t going to do better financially than their parents did. That’s got to be a big piece of the puzzle.