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International Women's Day
Julia Davies
The Power of Women
Often I feel this day comes and goes with a nod of appreciation but then getting on with our busy lives.
Really it deserves so much more. From a mental health point of view women, with so little as a feeling of discontentment in their marriage, could be sent to an asylum as recently as the 1900s. And the Asylums were full of women. Elaine Showalter argued that "madness is a female malady because it is experienced by more women than men"!
True, the UK tracks a global trend which statistically shows a greater number of women registered as suffering from mental illness then men. But this is because we seek help, we talk, we look for understanding, we try to share. Our male counterparts have an equal amount of battles but, ironically are now imprisoned by their own sense of shame and inability to find a way to communicate. Really the only shame is that they are suffering in silence.
So today we celebrate our strengths. And let us also celebrate the fact that we can spot someone locked up in their own mind and offer kindness not condemnation. Happy International Women's Day.