Elizabethan Era Women

It is four in the morning and your friend has called you crying over the phone because their relationship of four years just ended. After hours of venting and letting everything off of their chest, your friend begins to realize that it is possibly time to move on. A couple of months have passed by and it seems as though all is well. On the other end of the line, the opposite sex calls your phone as well. Although this individual is clearly saddened by the end of the relationship, they seem to avoid the conversation altogether, completely dismissing the issue. Months have passed by, however, it is clear that something is still bothering your friend.

Notice that both examples provide the reaction of both parties of the relationship yet chooses

While men were out in the field working, or perhaps at war, women were home taking care of the children and partaking in “feminine” chores. In the Elizabethan era, women were viewed as trophy wives—nothing more, nothing less. In this case their emotions were ignored and invaluable. On the other side of the equation, men were handling the “arduous” chores. Their roles were to be the provider and strength of the family. If a man was to show any “womanlike” qualities, such as emotion, it was guaranteed that they would be denounced, stripped of their manhood, and possibly labeled as homosexuals. Today, there has not been much change to these gender biases. From childhood, men are taught to repress their emotions while females are expected to express them. This plays a major role in statistical measures in regards to which gender is more likely to be diagnosed with clinical

There lies a difference within the idea of coping. Both genders have the ability to be depressed, however, the way that it is dealt with differs. There are two main kinds of coping mechanisms that psychologists have found to be common: emotional-focused coping and problem-focused coping. Emotional-focused coping places emphasis on altering the emotional expressions of an issue in hopes to change the outcome, while problem-focused coping deals with planning and cognitive efforts to get rid of the stressor (Kelly, Tykra, & Carpenter, 2008). When comparing the two, problem-focused coping is more effective than emotional-focused coping in the majority of situations. When it comes to the implementation of both coping strategies and genders, it is more likely for men to rely on problem-focused coping and women the opposite. As mentioned in the example of the little girl, it is more likely for women to resort to venting and self-blame, while men are more likely to solve the problem immediately with the least amount of emotional attachment as possible (Endler and Parker, 1990; Matud, 2004; Ptacek et al., 1994 referenced in Kelly, Tykra, & Carpenter, 2008). With taking this into consideration, maybe it is not that men do not experience depression as often as women, rather, maybe they just get over