Enlightenment--and a Rant

In Yahoo this morning, this was one of the featured news items, 12 surprising causes of depression. Of course I read it, because I'm a sucker for 'surprising causes'.
Here's two at least:

The sheer number of options available—whether it's face cream, breakfast cereal, or appliances—can be overwhelming. That's not a problem for shoppers who pick the first thing that meets their needs, according to some psychologists. However, some people respond to choice overload by maximizing, or exhaustively reviewing their options in the search for the very best item. Research suggests that this coping style is linked to perfectionism and depression.

. . . and I am a known perfectionist.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is most commonly associated with winter blues, and it afflicts about 5% of Americans. But for less than 1% of those people, this form of depression strikes in the summer. Warm weather depression arises when the body experiences a "delay adjusting to new seasons," says Alfred Lewy, MD, professor of psychiatry at Oregon Health and Science University, in Portland.

Instead of waking and enjoying dawn, the body has a hard time adjusting, he says, which could be due to imbalances in brain chemistry and the hormone melatonin.

At last! It's actually scientifically proven now! I am one of that sad 1%
http://health.yahoo.net/articles/depression/photos/12-surprising-causes-depression#7

In other news, all that stress that melted away when I threw out all those school books and stuff? It's all back. Just because I tried the practice compass test for the college I'm trying for. Now that, is sad. People tell me I do whatever I set my mind to, but I never wanted to set my mind on college in the first place.
What else can a girl do in this 21st century?

Be forewarned, my soapbox is being pulled out. Get out while you still can!

Here's my query for the hour:
What's worse: being primed for the marriage market, knowing that your match decided your happiness for the rest of your life? Or being forced to choose a career path, knowing that it also can affect your continual happiness, as it is something that will either haunt or follow you all your life?

Now certainly there were plenty of high-class women in that era who were very unhappy because of marriages that were practically arranged. Most of them were loveless unions, many unfaithful. It was the status they needed.
But weren't there just as many women who were happy with their life? How many married for their own happiness, not just for money?

I have to be fair and admit that there are probably just as many women nowadays who are perfectly content to be career-driven. Some actually thrive. Either way, it's a fact of life that women have to jobs. Marriage can still mean a way out; I still know a large number of stay-at-home-mom's, thank goodness. Still, there are just as many married women who have to work in order to help pay off loans, mortgages, or just keep up the cost of living.

How many are like me and don't want to keep climbing up?

Here it is again: I know it's ever so easy to say this when looking back. . . but wouldn't it be so much easier to find yourself a match in the marriage market of Victorian times?

There's another aspect, too. I'm not mentioning the larger middle-class and lower. Often there were those women who had to work long, hard factory hours for little pay when forced to support their family.
So I realize that we really are better off today.

But still.

Why couldn't suffragists just leave it alone back in the 1900's? Why?