Gender differences in depression: Explanations from feminist ethics

International Journal of Feminist Approaches to Bioethics 4 (1):69 (2011)
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Abstract

Although depression is among the more common types of mental disorders, it is significantly more common in women than in men. In this article, I draw on feminist analyses of personhood and of autonomy to explain the greater prevalence of depression among women. I argue that such an approach builds on earlier feminist critiques of psychiatry, but provides a more nuanced explanation of how social factors can affect women’s mental health by emphasizing that women with depression are not merely passive victims of oppressive social practices, but rather that these women are actively responding to their environment and interpreting their own experiences.

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Robyn Bluhm
Michigan State University

Citations of this work

Feminist Phenomenology and Medicine.Kristin Zeiler & Lisa Folkmarson Käll (eds.) - 2014 - State University of New York Press.
Wandering In The Unhomelike.Abby Wilkerson - 2014 - In Kristin Zeiler & Lisa Folkmarson Käll (eds.), Feminist Phenomenology and Medicine. State University of New York Press. pp. 285-303.

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References found in this work

Feminist transformations of moral theory.Virginia Held - 1990 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 50:321-344.

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