Want to know the secret of the world's happiest country? Ask its women
In a bid to confirm my theory, earlier this month – with crayfish grilling on countless barbecues and akvavit flowing – I met up with some of the country's womenfolk.
In a Helsinki side street bathed in razor-sharp midsummer sunlight, I had lunch with Jennifer de Paola, who told me that science seems to correlate my home-grown hypothesis.
'Some of the world's happiest countries, such as Iceland, Finland, Sweden and Norway, are also the most gender-equal,' she told me as we ploughed through roasted sweet potatoes topped with toasted hazelnuts at Yes! Yes! Yes! – a restaurant whose enthusiastic name seemed fitting for a meeting with a University of Helsinki happiness researcher.
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