Men: A Growing Minority in Mental Health

The role of men in the field of Psychology or Psychiatry has been immense since the time when Wilhelm Wundt introduced the subject in Leipzig and Narendra Nath Sen Gupta did so in Calcutta, India. Although a big part of Psychological concepts was coined and brought to life by men, why is there such a significant disparity in the ratio of males to females in this field?

According to APA, women have outnumbered men regarding post-graduate degrees in

Psychology by 3:1 in America.[1]

When it comes to India, a survey conducted by Cambridge Survey points out that a

whopping 91.2% of Women prefer to become Psychologists or Psychiatrists, as compared to 8.8% of Men who prefer the same.2 This vast gender disparity could pose a problem for clients who prefer men psychologists over women and men seeking mental health care. There have been cases of dropouts when it comes to men in the mental health field, due to the overwhelming amount of women studying the subject as opposed to men. I have come across such cases where boys and men are dropping out because of the enormous gender disparity. Although it seems comedic how there exist fields where women are predominant and not men, given the various other fields that have the exact opposite situation. The lack of men in the field could mean a lot fewer male clients seeking therapy and looking after their health.

In my experience, while doing BA in Psychology, there were only 7 (18.42%) Men in the

course. I had expected there to be more women studying the course, but I hadn’t expected such a big difference. It seemed as if I was in a place where I did not belong, which also helped me understand women’s points of view.

I noticed that the other men with me found it hard to keep their motivation up as they felt like outcasts and were unable to find solutions to a lot of problems they faced, be it in the subject or in life. A college is a place where people gain knowledge and experience about the subject of their interest and also about life.

The unfortunate scenario is that in college, there are hardly any men that teach the subject and could provide comfort to the male students that are keen on mastering the subject.

The reason for the lack of men in the field in India point to one big obstacle which is

Patriarchy.

Patriarchy, although a controversial topic, has been the root cause of us men not being able to enter the social sciences field. The reason is that, according to our history, it has been the responsibility of the men in society to earn a living for the whole family from a well-reputed job. This points out two major problems, one being that Psychology has not been the highest-paying field and the other being that it was not the most widely accepted field in India.

Apart from the patriarchal pressure that is put on men to earn and earn it with respect, there are a few reasons that also restrict them from making their career in this field.

Men face difficulty in finding a connection and a sense of belonging in the field because of them being outnumbered by women.

Another reason which is linked to the predominance of the opposite gender is that men

perceive the field as “girly”, which distances them from ever considering the field in the first place.

Over the years, I have witnessed a rise in the acceptance and celebration of mental health in India, where statistics have noted that there is a rise in men seeking therapy which has resulted in them getting better and learning to cope with their mental illnesses. Even though it seems like a far-fetched idea for there to be an equal number of men in the field who practise as a therapist and professor, I am very hopeful to see this happen in the upcoming years.

As compared to 20 years back, there has been a dramatic increase in funding for research in the field. There are multi-million dollar industries abroad and in India hiring psychologists to conduct workshops and research on their employees to increase their productivity and find out their workspace problems that have been leading to high attrition rates. Apart from this, the common person has been more accepting of their mental health and is willing to seek therapy, which is creating a prospective market for therapists. This increase in money flow in the field has been one of the motivating factors for men. But, as I mentioned above, everyone wants to earn money through a well-respected and widely accepted field, so the question arises, where have we reached on this criteria?

As it stands, mental health awareness seems to be growing at a stable speed, where

celebrities, politicians and people of high status are actively talking about mental illness,

self-care and the need to seek therapy and take medicines when prescribed to do so. They have used their platforms to spread awareness to the mass public that tunes into them and takes part in active listening and following what they say.

In Psychology, there are varied career prospects for men looking to make their career in it. They can look to working in research where there is a lot of funding from institutions within the country. Besides research, they can also look to working as a therapist or a counsellor which also has a lot of monetary prospects.

In Conclusion, I would like to say that the amount of men in the field of psychology is

inadequate but shows a lot of promise. At the moment, we can only hold on to the ray of hope and motivate men to specialise in this field, which may result in an increase in the common man seeking therapy and a society which is relatively healthier in their mental well-being.

- Neil Joshi, Intern

References

1. Fowler, G., Cope, C., Michalski, D., Christidis, P., Lin, L., & Conroy, J. (2018,

December 1). Women outnumber men in psychology graduate programs. Monitor on

Psychology, 49(11). https://www.apa.org/monitor/2018/12/datapoint

2. Sharma, K. (2018, November 28). More girls than boys in India want to become

psychologists or journalists: Cambridge survey. ThePrint.

https://theprint.in/india/governance/most-girls-in-india-aspire-to-become-psychologist

s-or-journalists-cambridge-survey/153852/