Who is happier: The housewife or working wife?

Short answer: There is not difference.

Long answer:

The earlier studies that came out around the 1970s, as more and more women started to leave the homes, so to speak, and took paid work found no statistically significant difference in the happiness between the housewife and the working wife. This paper revisits the same issue using data from the 2000s but refining the focus of the analysis, namely: paid work is differentiated into full-time, part-time, or self-employment. The findings are still consistent with the earlier studies. What the paper finds more interesting, however, is that a disparity in the happiness between the housewife and the working wife is perhaps more because of idiosyncrasies shaped by culture and social context but less about the paid work status itself.

That is from a new paper by Beja (March 2012).