Gender Identity, Norms, and Happiness

Natalia Danzer (), Rachel Kranton (), Piotr Pawel Larysz and Claudia Senik ()
Additional contact information
Natalia Danzer: Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin School of Economics - Berlin School of Economics, Ifo Institute, CESifo - CESifo - Munich, IZA - Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit - Institute of Labor Economics, RF Berlin
Rachel Kranton: Duke University
Piotr Pawel Larysz: Freie Universität Berlin, WZB - Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin für Sozialforschung
Claudia Senik: SU - Sorbonne Université, PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, PJSE - Paris Jourdan Sciences Economiques - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - IP Paris - Institut Polytechnique de Paris, IUF - Institut universitaire de France - M.E.N.E.S.R. - Ministère de l'Education nationale, de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche

PSE Working Papers from HAL

Abstract: How do gender identity and norms relate to happiness? This paper takes advantage of the 2024 European Social Survey, which asks respondents to report their feelings of femininity and masculinity, and studies the relationships between these self-assessments, (non-)conformity to gender norms, and life satisfaction. The results show a robust asymmetry between men and women. For men, feeling more masculine, behaving in ways more typical of men, and life satisfaction are all positively cross-correlated. For women, while feeling more feminine and life satisfaction are similarly positively correlated, behaving in ways more typical of women is, in contrast, associated with lower life satisfaction. These patterns vary across European regions, potentially reflecting different histories. The results are robust to alternative measures of typical behavior of men and women and subjective well-being. The findings support theories of gender identity and reveal possible trade-offs implied by gender norms for women.

Keywords: subjective well-being; life satisfaction; measures of norms; masculinity; femininity; gender identity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-10
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05319271v1
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05319271v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:psewpa:halshs-05319271

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in PSE Working Papers from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().