Adult Sex Roles and Mental Illness

Abstract

This paper looks at the relationship between adult sex roles and mental illness.A fairly precise definition of mental illness is used limiting it to functional disorders characterized by anxiety (neurosis) and/or mental disorganization (psychosis). A number of characteristics of the woman's role in modern industrial societies that might promote the development of mental illness are discussed. The rates of mental illness for men and women following Wolrd War II are then compared by looking at community surveys, first admissions to mental hospitals, psychiatric treatment in general hospitals, psychiatric outpatient clinics, private outpatient psychiatric care, and the practices of general physicians. These data uniformly indicate that adult women have higher rates of mental illness than adult men. A survey of other disorders which appear to be a response to stress also shows women to have higher rates than men. Alternatives to the role explanation of the observed relationships are shown to be inadequate.