Frances, one of the studies you cite in your post on women earning more and marrying "down" noted that women are less happy than they used to be.

Everyone wonders why. You provided several answers.

I'm going with the one that pointed to men. What has always made women unhappy (or happy, as the case may be)? Men. My more feminist friends are going to hate that answer. But women focus on relationships and one of the most important of those relationships is with men. We can't help it. We're flooded with oxytocin hormones that urge us to bond, bond, bond.

The NPR interview with Stephanie Coontz, author of "Marriage: A History," pinpoints the problem.

You wrote:

Coontz referenced a poll from 1967 that found that "two-thirds of women said they'd consider marrying a man they did not love if he had good earnings potential."

"Now," says Coontz, "women have a completely different point of view . . . They say overwhelmingly -- 87 percent -- that it's more important to have a man who can communicate well, who can be intimate and who will share the housework than to have someone who makes more money than you do."

That's a tall order. If all you want is money, your chances of being happy with a man are fairly good. But if you want a hot guy who's in touch with his feelings and your feelings, ready to talk about them, AND does his share of the housework, you aren't looking for a man, you're looking for a wife.

A spectacular wife.