ABSTRACT
For most of the past fifty years, more women than men have been admitted to psychiatric hospitals,1 although the trend has gradually changed so that since 1990 there have been slightly more male than female admissions.2 However, many of the problems that bring people into contact with the psychiatric services – depression, eating disorders, agoraphobia, anxiety, self-harm – are found far more frequently in women than men. A closer look at the roles women are expected to fulfil in our culture is necessary to understand why this is so. I shall follow this with a discussion of the neglected topic of how the mental health of men, too, is affected by sex role pressures.
