Psychology Today | 11.05.2026 23:42
Women have higher rates of anxiety than men (McLean et al., 2009), but there may be more to this picture than innate biological differences. In my work as a clinical psychologist, I have come to observe that for many women with chronic baseline anxiety, what is being masked is anger. It can take several months of therapy as I give them permission to explore their real feelings, opinions, judgments, and desires before finding that the anxiety dissipates, and underneath is rage. Rage that their partners and families ask too much of them. Rage that their workplaces ask more from them than is reasonable. Rage that they are being treated differently because they are female.
