By Ali Siemens (Staff Writer) – Email
Economic issues have been at the forefront of many people’s concerns for some time now, and budgets in companies around the world are being cut in many areas, affecting their ability to hire new employees. Although Canada has escaped the worst of the recession, according to Statistics Canada, jobs are still difficult to find. Surprisingly, a recent article in the British Journal of Psychiatry noted that these economic and social changes are taking a severe toll on males in particular.
Traditionally, males have been the main source of income for many families. This role as breadwinner is thus often strongly linked to self worth and self-esteem. Dr Boadie Dunlop from Emroy University School of Medicine – one of the authors of a recent study on male depression – stated: “traditional male jobs such as manufacturing or physical labour are being lost, either through improved technology or jobs moving to other countries.” As the number of such traditionally male-dominated jobs has decreased, Dunlop revealed, studies have shown an increase in male depression.
Since 2007, research has shown that roughly 75 percent of jobs lost were held by men. With this change in conventions, many men are staying home, and women are increasingly becoming the primary earners in their households, “with 22 per cent of wives earning more than their husbands in 2007, versus only four percent in 1970,” said Dunlop. In their new roles, men are facing the same difficulties women dealt with in past economies. Dunlop asserted that when men take on these roles even though they are not biologically the same as women “[they are] being trapped in a family role because of an inability to find employment.”
As well as being traditionally viewed in society as providers, it is stated that masculinity is often depicted in terms of toughness, resilience, and avoidance of emotional displays – and men are generally pressured to live up to this depiction. These characteristics are said to make it difficult for men to talk about mental illnesses such as depression and to seek help for it. However, it has been shown that mental health awareness is positively linked to education as well as to hearing other males talk about their experiences with depression. Dunlop notes that the recent attempts to destigmatize and speak openly about mental illness “has [made] a significant impact in opening up the public space for men to validate symptoms of depression.”
Interestingly, women are twice as susceptible to suffer from major depression, but because of the drastic economic changes and the significant psychological impact that unemployment is found to have on men, more men than women are suffering from depression.
Unfortunately, even with economic restoration, traditional male jobs do not seem to be coming back; therefore, Dunlop feels that there is a strong need for a plan for men suffering from this kind of economy-induced depression. It is because of his findings that Dunlop stressed the need to be aware of the changes in society and male health for doctors and other practitioners, suggesting they pay close attention to their patients’ needs and any sudden mental changes they may be experiencing.
