Can we say "when" to Happiness?

So, I was on the treadmill this morning watching the Today Show that had Hoda Kotb and Kathy Lee Gifford, and Naomi Wolfe (feminist and author who wrote The Beauty Myth--she's gorgeous, by the way) was on it talking about a study that has determined that women are not has happy as they were 40 years ago.

I don't know about you, but I graduated high school and started working full time all those years ago. I was deliriously happy to be out of high school and working at a job that was paying me $98 a week. I had a 1964 Ford Fairlane which came complete with an AM radio (77-ABC and 66-NBC). Life was good.

Anyway, so the three women did their best to get into the whole women-not-as-happy-today-as-they-were-40-years-ago discussion within their two-three allotted minutes, but Kotb brought up an interesting point--were those women 40 years ago responding as women of that not-so-liberated-enlightened time rather than truthfully??? Nineteen seventy was still a fairly conservative time for women...Donna Reed was still very much a part of the consciousness as an idealized woman, though feminists were getting louder and louder. Wolfe acknowledged that Kotb had made a very strong point, and the three went on to talk about the study and Wolfe's article in this month's More magazine (I'm a subscriber...it's the magazine for women over 40...coincidence??? I think NOT).

So, did these post-war (WWII/Korean), pre-women's lib women fudge on their answers because they were still caught into the "little woman" web? Did they say "when" to happiness? Are you happy?