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Research on the incidence of depression has widely shown that women are more depressed than men. There is a broad range of theories that can be invoked to explain this fact, ranging from biological to psychological to sociocultural, which all touch on major issues in the psychology of women. This paper will explore these diverse theories and then present research that challenges the traditional predominance of depression in women and suggests that historical changes may be occurring affecting sex differences in psychology.
The statistics on the prominence of depression in women have been well established (Weissman and Klerman, 1977). The evidence has involved all types of depression — psychotic, neurotic, and depressive affect in general. The sex ratios for women are even higher for neurotic depression than for manic-depressive illness, showing that it is not just severe forms of clinical pathology, which may have their own particular etiology, that are at issue but the entire area of depression in general. Women have predominated in every age group and also cross-culturally, especially in Western or industrialized nations.
A broad range of theories can be invoked in trying to explain the etiology of depression in women, ranging the entire spectrum from biological to psychological to sociocultural, and covering factors as diverse as genetics, hormones, brain biochemistry, innate behavioral tendencies, reproductive functioning, psychological reactions to anatomical differences, childhood socialization, family roles of mothers and fathers, cultural stereotypes, and the political-economic distribution of power in a male-dominated society. The research literature is actually that vast and far-ranging