Gender and mental health

This chapter examines the way in which understandings of the linkages between gender and mental health have developed since second wave feminist research of the 1960s and 1970s. It examines the changing constructions and measures of mental disorder and the associated changes in the observed gender distribution of mental health and illness. From the female predominance noted in the 1960s and 1970s, subsequent studies have identified a more even gender balance in overall levels of mental health as they have incorporated a wider range of disorders. Yet there are still marked gender differences in the types of disorder identified, with women typically having far higher levels of depression and anxiety and men higher levels of alcohol and drug problems and the less common antisocial personality disorder. The chapter then examines some explanations for these observed differences, focusing in particular on gender differences in emotional expression and childhood sexual abuse.