Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Study: Orthodox Women Have More Anxiety

According to a study done at the University of London about Orthodox Jews:

"Quantitatively, severe stress and clinical levels of depression and anxiety were similar among the men and women studied, but women had overall more eventful lives than men, and were more likely to suffer from borderline depression and anxiety..."

Not that this surprises me, but I found it an interesting anecdote nevertheless. Women in the Orthodox community are expected to be mothers and homemakers and, particularly in recent times, also to be breadwinners. Is it any wonder that they're stressed?



4 comments:

  1. Don't you blame feminism for that? (ie. the need to be not only homemaker and mother but also breadwinner?)

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  2. Feminism definitely has a big downside. I think Frum Feminist is calling herself a feminist with reservations?

    Personally, I consider myself somewhat of a feminist, meaning actually pro women's rights etc, not referring to the feminist movement per say.

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  3. not to mention anxiety about finding a shidduch!!!

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  4. Anonymous #1: I suppose you could choose to see it that way. Or you could consider the fact that Orthodox women are only becoming more modern in the fact that they have jobs and not more modern in limiting the number of kids that they have.

    Anonymous #2: Yes, I'm a frum feminist with some reservations.


    Hear hear, Kisarita.

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