Are women happier than men? Do gender rights make a difference?

I have been working on well-being and happiness in economics for more than two decades. The research--based on the work of scholars around the world--finds consistent patterns in the determinants of life satisfaction across millions of respondents. These include income (yes it matters but not as much as you might think), health (matters a lot), employment, families and friendships, and age (there is a mid-life dip in well-being that holds across most people and countries around the world). A question that always comes up, though, is "are women happier than men?" The answer is "yes, but it's complicated"--and at times in surprising ways.