Why are British women so sad right now?

How are you feeling? If you happen to be a woman from the UK, there’s a reasonable chance that your honest answer is something along the lines of: “Not that great, actually.” According to the Hologic Global Women’s Health Index, an annual survey that explores female wellbeing around the world, UK women are sadder and more stressed out than their counterparts in the EU. Sigh.

The statistics make for pretty depressing reading – but they might not be all that surprising to women (they may even tally with your own anecdotal experience). Thirty-two per cent of the survey’s British participants revealed that they had felt sad on the previous day, compared to 21 per cent three years earlier; just 26 per cent of the EU women surveyed reported the same feelings in the recent study. Thirty-nine per cent of UK women had experienced stress the day before,