Lady is a champ

[Roxy]

You've suspected it for most of your life, but this year offered proof: women are better than men. They are more scholarly, more hip, more artistic, more in harmony with nature and safer to be around, while men can't even be bothered to use condoms.

Surprisingly, this has not caused women to turn to each other for partnership - lesbian de facto marriages are less common than gay de facto marriages (except in Canberra). Nor does being a better person necessarily mean being a happier person: 42 per cent of women describe themselves as "pleased" or "delighted" with their lives, while 43 per cent of men say they are in that state of bliss (or ignorance).

These details emerged in the avalanche of research about Australian behaviour released in 2003. This article is an attempt to summarise what we learned about ourselves from this year's data - and to dispose of some myths we can no longer hold about what it means to be "a typical Aussie".

The first good news is that we are not a nation of couch potatoes. We're watching television less and going out more. The Bureau of Statistics reported that 88 per cent of adult Australians went to cultural activities in 2002 - up from 82 per cent in 1995.