Citation

Hordern A. S. Afr. Med. J. 1978; 54(24): 1026-1032.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1978, South African Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

746443

Abstract

Women have been deeply involved in the social changes that have taken place in Western society during the last 30 years; the most significant transformers have been 'the pill' and television. As a result of an accelerated emancipation, women have become more assertive; pari passu men have become less dominant, more children have been deprived and the elderly have been increasingly extruded. Mature women have been adversely affected by the loss of charisma of fertility and motherhood, by changes in female reproductive physiology, by the uncertainty of marriage and its alternatives, by increased work and by the emphasis now placed on youth and sexuality. These stresses have been accompanied by a rise among women of 'male' behavior and 'male' diseases, as well as by an increase in self-poisoning, completed suicide and the 'female' disease of depression.

Language: en