Three Cups of Tea and our GDP vs GNH
In the bestselling book Three Cups of Tea, the king of Bhutan, a country in the Himalayas, is said to have remarked that the “true measure of a nation’s success is not gross national product, but ‘gross national happiness.’”
Judging by this measure, America does not rank very highly. A few years ago, a Pew Research survey found that only 34% of US adults say they are ‘very happy,’ while 15% report being ‘not too happy.’ The study noted that these numbers have been stable for a very long time.
Several posts to the Working Moms Break blog suggest that part of the problem for women may be the notion that it is possible to have it all—high-powered career, nurtured children, well-kept home, well-kept self. The same author, Katrina Alcorn, also points out here on the MomsRising blog that, more than any other country on earth (except Swaziland and a couple others), America’s institutions simply do not offer the tools to make this possible.
The problem is particularly acute for working mothers. A more recent Pew poll found that “many women feel conflicted about the competing roles they play at work and at home,” and that “most working mothers find themselves in a situation that they say is less than ideal.” The survey found that 62% of working mothers would prefer to work part time.
Fortunately, this dilemma is beginning to receive the attention it deserves. A symposium at the University of Iowa’s Public Policy Center this month (Oct 20-22), called Balanced Lives: Best Policies for the New Economy, will gather together experts on the history of these issues, civic and community impacts, market-based approaches, and public policy options.
Speakers will include Momsrising.org co-founder Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner and The Motherhood Manifesto documentarian John de Graaf. Especially promising in this regard is the work of Chris Hoenig, President and CEO of State of the USA, an organization that is establishing metrics for how to measure the health and well being of our country outside of the GDP.
The second day of the symposium will feature workshop discussions about real-world challenges with the goal of providing input to the State of the USA initiative.
So take a trip to Iowa City and let’s get to work on improving our gross national happiness! Register for Balanced Lives today: http://ppc.uiowa.edu/balancedlives
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