Goods on which one loses: Women and mental health in China

Abstract

This article is broadly divided into three sections. The first part deals with the traditional aspects of gender discrimination in China. Before the Communist government came to power in 1949, discrimination against women was institutionalized within all the usual structures of society: family, the economy, education, culture and the political system. It was one of the major policy initiatives of the Communist government to do away with unequal treatment of women. However, it is very easy to demonstrate that significant discrimination against women still exists. The Chinese government argues that this is because of ‘remnants of feudal thinking’. Although this may be partly true, there are aspects of current Chinese society that encourage the continuation of this cultural tradition. The second part of the article examines what is known of the epidemiology of mental illness in China with particular reference to gender. As is the case in Western countries, depression and neurotic disorders are diagnosed more frequently in women than in men, although, overall, the prevalence rate is much lower than in Western countries. What is unusual is that schizophrenia, which is diagnosed at roughly equal rates for men and women in Western countries, is diagnosed more frequently in women in China. Despite this, women occupy fewer psychiatric hospital beds and generally receive fewer resources (e.g. health insurance) than men. Suicide rates are very much higher in China than, for instance, in America, and the suicide figures for young, rural women are particularly disturbing. The third part of the article is based on three interviews with women in a psychiatric clinic in Hubei province. Through the information and life experience described by these women, it is shown how the matters discussed in the previous two sections have an impact on individual lives, and how illness is used as both a metaphor and a strategy.