Discussing the Facts About Depression

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Depression is a common part of human living. Both males and females experience depression, which may lead to mental illness. However, depression affects gender differently. Jenkins and Good explore women and global mental health. They assert that women are the most affected by the burden of mental illness than men. Several reasons explain this assertion. According to Jenkins and Good, men who face mental disorders use substances and drugs compared to women whose sources of depression include social, psychological, economic, and biological factors (274). Substance use, to some extent, helps men overcome depression.
Various reasons support the difference in mental health burden in men and women. Most societies define gender roles and expectations, putting the female gender in a challenging situation leading to depression. Jenkins and Good's theories as causing the difference in gender mental burden include unemployment, poor housing, lack of confiding relationships, and workload. Most traditional and organizational cultures discriminate against women in the employment sector. Customary laws, in most cases, profile women as house helps, depriving them of money for their private expenses. This leads to depression.
The workload is a significant causal of mental health in women, as Jenkins and Good describe. It is an issue that is mainly defined by the customary laws profiling women as house helps, working on almost every available house chore. Jenkins and Good describe a study by Abbot and Klein (1979) which researched depression among women from Kenya, an East African country. The study found that Kenyan culture favors males over females, who have to put up men's migration ...