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In our culture, the sources of what we call a sense of mastery ---feeling important and worth-while-and the sources of what we call a sense pleasure-finding life enjoyable-are not always identical. Women often are told You cant have it all. Sometimes what the speaker really is saying is : You chose a career, so you cant expect to have closer relationships or a happy family life. or You have a wonderful husband and children--Whats all this about wanting a career? But women need to understand and develop both aspects of well-being, if they are to feel good about themselves. Our study shows that, for women, well-being has two dimensions. One is mastery, which includes self-esteem , a sense of control over your life, and low levels of anxiety and depression. Mastery is closely related to the doing side of life, to work and activity. Pleasure is the other dimensions, and it is composed of happiness, satisfaction and optimism . It is tied more closely to the feeling side of life. The two are independent of each other. A woman could be high in mastery and low in pleasure, and vice versa. For example, a woman who has a good job, but whose mother has just died, might be feeling very good about herself and in control of her work life, but the pleasure side could be damaged for a time. The concepts of mastery and pleasure can help us identify the sources of well-being for women, and remedy past mistakes. In the past, women were encouraged to look only at the feeling side of life as the source of all well-being. But we know that both mastery and pleasure are critical. And mastery seems to be achieved largely through work. In our study, all the groups of employed women rated significantly higher in mastery than did women who were not employed. | 
