Understanding the Gender Disparity in Depression: Why Women Are More Affected

By most accounts, women suffer from depression twice as often as males. Many different factors and conditions may influence a woman's moods, including her tendency to brood over unresolved issues in her life.

History

• In earlier times, depressed women often suffered silently

  The definition and understanding of depression in women has changed over the years according to the current fashions, trends, scientific and medical advances, and societal expectations.

Significance

• A woman sometimes feels she has little or no control over her life

  Researcher and author Susan Nolen-Hoeksema believes some women experience depression more often than men because of greater stress and societal expectations in addition to hormonal influences and the belief that they have no real control over their lives.

Personality and Other Influences

• Many women feel frustrated by their inability to do it all

  A woman's personality and history may contribute to her greater vulnerability to depression, as well as her tendency to ruminate over problems and past traumas while attempting to juggle work, child care and other responsibilities.

Misconceptions

• Men often find it difficult to articulate what they are feeling

  Since a man often finds it difficult to recognize or admit to experiencing a depressed mood, it may appear as though fewer men than women suffer from the illness.

Considerations

• woman and men may exhibit different symptoms of depression

  Jed Diamond, PhD reported the results of a 1990 study in which the researchers, Angst and Ernst, suggested that depression occurs less often in men because men's symptoms differ from women's symptoms and may escape diagnosis.