Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction: Are We Out of Our Minds?
- 1. Growing up a Girl
- 2. Family Life
- 3. The Art of Starvation
- 4. The Costs of Fertility
- 5. Women’s Work
- 6. Unheard, Ignored, Entrapped?
- 7. Where Gender, Sex and Mental Health Collide
- 8. Survivors of Male Violence
- 9. Locked Away
- 10. Borderline
- 11. Failed by Mental Health Care
- 12. Written Off Too Soon
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Index
5. - Women’s Work
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 October 2024
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Introduction: Are We Out of Our Minds?
- 1. Growing up a Girl
- 2. Family Life
- 3. The Art of Starvation
- 4. The Costs of Fertility
- 5. Women’s Work
- 6. Unheard, Ignored, Entrapped?
- 7. Where Gender, Sex and Mental Health Collide
- 8. Survivors of Male Violence
- 9. Locked Away
- 10. Borderline
- 11. Failed by Mental Health Care
- 12. Written Off Too Soon
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Index
Summary
Women ‘hold the world together’ through their emotional labour in relationships and families, unpaid housework, mothering and caring work regardless of their jobs outside the home too. They have borne the heaviest burden of the Covid−19 epidemic on society worldwide. Yet the emotional and physical impact of their work remains undervalued. They still experience sexism in the workplace, and the intersectional factors of race, class and deprivation magnify their suffering. Feminism identified the ‘problem with no name’ which became a diagnosis of anxiety then depression and women are twice likely as men to be diagnosed with these common mental health problems, anxiety and depression, and this excess of depression is real, it is not simply unhappiness, but is neverthlesless related to particular stresses of the lives we lead. Historically, we were precribed benzodiazepines and now antidepressants, which do help many. However, health care systems largely ignore the massive part that gender plays in why more women than men get depressed. There is inadequate access for many women to the kind of therapy and support they need. Women need to come together to create these therapeutic spaces.
Keywords
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- Information
- Out of Her MindHow We Are Failing Women's Mental Health and What Must Change, pp. 91 - 108Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024