Women’s Mental Health Needs Must be Understood and Addressed

What makes women’s mental health a feminist issue? In this blog post from the National Organization for Women (NOW), Amelia Risinit explains how experiences of gender oppression and sexism contribute to our mental health conditions. It's no coincidence that the most common mental health condition in women is depression. Women are also more than twice as likely than men to have an anxiety disorder.

We must take an intersectional approach to mental health because Black people face additional barriers to care. The barriers include discrimination in the medical system, stigma, lack of access, and insurance restrictions.

Risnit focuses on disparities between Black and white women, but additional factors affect the care we get for our mental health. A national women’s health survey from 2024 found that:

• White women (31%) are more likely to receive mental health care compared to Asian women (19%)  and Hispanic women (24%).
• 33% of women under 50 years received mental health care in the past year compared to 22% of women over 50 years old.
• Women with lower incomes and women on Medicaid access mental health care more commonly than women with higher incomes and women on private insurance.
• Nearly 30% of women without insurance report cost as the reason for lack of mental health care.
• 13% of women ages 18 to 64 years old did not get mental health care, or stopped receiving it, because of cost.

Risinit offers clear recommendations to ensure that mental health services are accessible and affordable for women. We must educate ourselves about mental health symptoms and conditions. Sharing our own experiences helps destigmatize mental health. It’s also vital that we advocate for legislation that both supports and funds women’s health.

Taking a deeper look at the gendered differences between women, and men, and their respective rates of mental health diagnoses, the socially constructed roles for each gender define social interactions. These differences lead to varying stress perceptions in daily life and distinct patterns of who is more likely to seek healthcare, or not seek healthcare in some cases. Women are more likely to have a higher perception of distress and encounter it more often, while men are less likely to experience the same.

SOURCE: National Organization for Women • AUTHOR: Kim • LAST UPDATED: May 1, 2023