Mental Health Harm of Sexism & Misogyny Archives

Internalized Misogyny, What Women Need to Heal

Internalized Misogyny, Mental Health Harm of Sexism & Misogyny, Sexism & Misogyny as Trauma

Are American women ready to face the reality of internalized misogyny? Perhaps this 2024 election is going to be the catalyst. I wrote about my awakening to the oppression of women with the 2016 election. I suspect many people are now sharing this awakened view of the status of women in American and how it is harming us, and even killing us.

As a psychotherapist, trauma specialist, former entrepreneur and global communications agency owner for the technology industry, certified meditation and self-compassion teacher and founder of Woman Informed, I have a lot of experience, and I have a lot to say. My communications consulting work in more egalitarian cultures, including Sweden, was eye opening. I write in my blog about how it was like a time travel to women’s equality. It helped me see more clearly.

For the past 5 years, I have been writing a book on internalized misogyny. I have read more than 800 research papers and countless books. My research has synthesized to point towards a science-backed clinical mental health solution to healing from the impact of sexism, misogyny and internalized misogyny. The method will be presented in my upcoming book.

I blog about my research and thinking on internalized misogyny. There is so much more to share. The dynamics of the 2025 election have made me realize it is time to speak up more broadly. American needs this information and a path of hope to change what many people see and do not know how to heal.

In my speaking engagements and professional interactions, many people across the gender spectrum have encouraged my work. For reasons that point to my research, I have not been surprised that black women, and lesbians, are especially supportive. They get it. They are not in denial about how patriarchy is an oppressive force. They have read Bell Hooks and Andre Lorde.

White men are the dominant and privileged group in patriarchy. All men are privileged by patriarchy over all women. Notice that America elected a black male president. We were willing to do that. We seem unwilling to elect a woman, any woman, even those with incredible qualifications. Yes, patriarchy harms men, and their emotional capacities. I share in a blog post about how patriarchal norms train women to turn the focus back on men. Yet, the harm to men is secondary to the main harm done by patriarchy as it is oppressive to women. Women have their own work to do. We have a whole lot of work to do. Men can do their own work.

White women are the main secondary beneficiary of patriarchy. The abdication of women’s value, power and self is the expectation of patriarchy. By supporting patriarchy, by following the patriarchal norms, by remaining silent, by joining in the oppression of women lower in the patriarchal hierarchy, by backing patriarchy, white women gain privileges. White women have the privilege of silence. Silence and submission is a safe bet for many individual white woman to continue receiving benefits from the dominate group – men. Unfortunately, silence harms our collective. It is clear to me, that this has been a key factor harming women’s solidarity. All of this is probably mostly an unconscious process, ingrained inherited epigenetic survival strategies based on the oppression of women, even white women, for millennia. Many women with greater privilege may even deny the existence of misogyny or internalized misogyny. I share in a blog post the science showing that women that perceive less sexism have more internalized misogyny.

As much support as I have received, there has also been a dark side. By dark side, I refer to the adult woman as mean girl. I have come face-to-face with the women-to-women horizontal aggression, relational aggression, and attempts to hijack my expertise and covertly compete. The overt message is “we are all about love, softness, being nice and equality.” With some and not all women, the reality is mean, cruel, passive aggressive, not kind, covertly competitive and hierarchical and nothing like the authentic love I want to embody. Reading, listening and observing, I learned that it is a common experience for black women to have white women feel entitled to their work, take credit for their work, or not properly giving credit or attribute expertise they have gained from the hard work of black women. I write about how internalized patriarchy perpetuates the oppression of women.

While certainly not immune to internalized misogyny, women that choose careers in business, law, consulting have rejected some of the prescribed norms of patriarchy and may have less internalized misogyny than women that more fully buy in to prescribed norms. These careers value women’s competency and agency, not just communion and caregiving. I saw this contrast in the amount of relational aggression I observed as I executed a career change and became a psychotherapist, a career in caregiving.

There is a women’s hierarchy of who gets to lead among women. I am not the most popular white woman, the richest, the prettiest, or the most experienced psychologist. Although to some people I am white presenting as my mom is English, my Dad is Mexican. How dare I take credit for my 30-years of experience as a leader in a male dominated industry, successful business owner, and global communications consultant that leverages this experience in my psychotherapy practice. Who am I to assert my expertise on this subject of internalized misogyny?

To be completely vulnerable and honest, the process of writing my book has been slower than my original plan because of this dark side. This dark side has hurt. Some women have felt the need to put me in my place. I realized the very thing I was writing about was playing out as I emerged as an expert on this topic. What I was seeing as a result of internalized misogyny made me question if it would be hard to get mass support in what I know as my life purpose. I am going to do it anyway. I accept there will be backlash as a result of the very things I write about – misogyny and internalized misogyny.

Saying all this has the potential to be perceived as aggressive towards women. Yet, that would be victim blaming and something I am not doing. Internalized misogyny is a result of oppression. To heal from internalized misogyny, we need to name it and see it. I have come to a place of compassion towards women that act like mean girls, realizing that relational aggression is a symptom of internalized misogyny and internalized misogyny is a symptom of a millennia of oppression. We as women need to come together and heal together. To do this in ways that honor diversity and intersectionality, we need to heal this barrier to a much-needed solidarity.

I have written about how patriarchy, with its misogyny and sexism, is an identity-based trauma, as is racism. Identity-based traumas impact us in many ways including our self-esteem, self-compassion, and self-worth. The harm to women is well documented. There is solid evidence of the mental health issues related to this trauma and my blog shares the research on how it impacts rates of depression, anxiety and PTSD. There is also harm to our physical health.

There are many women that support other women and do not engage in relational aggression and also proactively support, uplift and give appropriate credit to other women. It has been my experience that many women with higher levels of empowerment, patriarchy-aware women, women that in many ways reject submission to patriarchal norms already resonate with what I present and distill with my Woman Informed work. Those women have expressed to me that they see the need for related change in our culture as a critical path to equality for women. There is a way out. There is hope. There is a more authentic, and healthy, way to love and be in relationship. This is the next step to the progress of women.

My Spiritual Awakening On The Pink Carpet

Internalized Misogyny, Love and Compassion, Mental Health Harm of Sexism & Misogyny

By coincidence, or serendipity, I was in New York for business on election day 2016. I spent the evening walking the streets of New York to see Democracy Plaza, Trump Tower and the Peninsula Hotel where Hillary was staying. I was excited to feel that I was in close proximity to a pivotal moment in history, to be so close to the historical moment when the United States would have its first female president. I felt hope for the future and proud of my contributions in support of women’s issues up to that point. Her inauguration would be the beginning of great opportunity for women in the United States. It would be a platform for progress for all of us. And then…

To my surprise, I sobbed as I showered for my meetings and pulled myself together as I headed to my work meeting. The sun came up. Why did this pain feel so deep?

Ironically, my business was to be held at Jacob Javitz Convention Center, the same place that Hillary’s camp spent election day. It was bizarre, to say the least, as I walked through the Hillary camp area to get a coffee as they tore down the audio-visual equipment from the night before. I had thoughts.

How did Hillary feel last night? Her whole adult life built perfectly for this. What pain was felt just last night in this exact place that I stand? She was the most qualified candidate for president, probably ever, and couldn’t win. If she can’t win then what is the actual status of women in this country? And now they are tearing all this stuff down and it is over. They are tearing down Hillary. Just like women are torn down every single day.

I stood for a moment and suddenly felt a powerful energy arise from the pink carpet up through my body. It felt like the collective grief that was being felt by women across the world. I felt the suffering of women past, present and future. I was instantly changed.

I began to cry in the middle of the room. The somber mood, and painful looks as people noticed my reaction told me I was not alone. I found a private spot as I did not want a business client to see me.

What was breaking my heart was a felt sense and knowledge of the unconscious bias against women, and the pain this causes on such a universal level. This pain includes women’s personal safety issues, poverty rates, suppressed voices, withholding of educations, denial of basic rights and the oppression of women’s freedoms around the world. It is why women have to work harder, to be paid less, to be perceived as less competent than their less competent male peers. All this is proven by science. It is a key reason why many women are saying, “I am tired.”

Upon seeing the election results, I worried for the future of women. As it appears Hillary did when she said in her concession speech, “To all the little girls who are watching this. Never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.”

I believe many otherwise liberal-leaning people’s justifications for not supporting Hillary were related to unconscious gender bias. When people call Hillary a liar, untrustworthy, not a good leader, cold, power hungry, or just unlikable, or probably most laughable, unqualified, it matches the research regarding views about competent women. The science behind gender bias can explain all these judgments. I was shocked that many people, including women, while proclaiming support of women, did not have knowledge of the specifics of gender bias.

It was on that pink carpet that I knew I was done with my long career as the owner of a successful communications consulting business for the technology industry. My path was not crystal clear, and I remained open as I allowed my intuition and mind to partner and support my choice of direction. A choice I was grateful to have.

I am now a psychotherapist. This educational and professional background is foundational as it supports my continued observations, research, and focus on women. It was in graduate school that my experience deepened, and my direction was more fully formed. I was saddened to observe the misogyny of academia. My research showed me it was not just my university. It was in graduate school that I realized that many people in caregiving fields, including women, even the psychologists, may be more likely to buy into the harmful norms of patriarchy. Traditional, patriarchy-approved career choices for women are those in care giving, valuing communion. Some women may choose these fields as a denial of their agency and personal power.

I was also observing a clear contrast and difference in how women treated other women in this caregiving career field as opposed to the careers that require more agency and owned personal power. It was not what I expected so it sparked my curiosity and continued research. I watched subtle, and not so subtle, corrections in the form of passive aggressive relational aggression encouraging conformity to harmful patriarchal norms related to women’s voice, boundaries and selflessness. The research showed me why. The higher the internalized misogyny, the higher the relational aggression toward other women. This is mostly unconscious, with the resulting behaviors justified by cultural norms.

In the mental health therapy world, I watched women that claimed the communal relational approach to healing demonstrate relational aggression towards women that rejected harmful gender norms. Their actions worked to keep other women in their place, as defined by patriarchy. I saw how the more empowered women were silenced by women-to-woman horizontal aggression. In my research, I saw how this impacted women’s solidarity and support for women with intersectional identities, including racism.

All this led me to my focus and purpose to help women heal from the internalized misogyny caused by oppression. My extensive research led to finding a multidimensional, science-back approach to healing. As a result, I founded Women Informed.

The state of the oppression of women is such that women need to see patriarchy as not just a external force, but also something inside of us that we need to be aware of, unpack and heal. It is a process. We need to heal together in a way that empowers women to step out of our current constraints. Our lives, our actual lives, and also are freedoms in how we live them, are at risk.

Time Travel to Women’s Equality

Mental Health Harm of Sexism & Misogyny

I have traveled to the future of women’s equality and it is wonderful. By future, I mean Sweden. Spending more than 20 years working with Swedish companies as a communications consultant, I had the privilege of experiencing gender equality, as good as it gets on this planet earth.

Over the years, one Swedish client led to more, and I soon found myself with multiple yearly trips to Stockholm. I made friends, and spent a great deal of time, with some of the most fantastisk Swedish people. Yes, fantastisk is spelled correctly, the Swedish way. If my feminist activity should ever render me a refugee, I will seek asylum in Sweden.

Of no surprise to me, Sweden ranked #1 in a report recently released by the United Nations titled, THE PATHS TO EQUAL, Twin indices on women’s empowerment and gender equalit y. Also not surprisingly, the United States’ ranking was poor. Of 114 countries ranked, the United States ranked 22nd on the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) and a pathetic 33rd on the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI). In addition to Sweden, I have had the pleasure of working with clients in other countries that outrank the US including Australia, Belgium, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Germany. Despite our self-perception of greatness, the data shows the U.S. is not such a great place for women. In comparison to more advanced countries, the U.S. culture screams misogyny and women have internalized this misogyny, leading to relational aggression between women perpetuating the problem. The UN report’s forward highlights the significance of global women’s issues as, “… the unfinished business of our time.”

The UN report ranked countries on two indices, the Women’s Empowerment Index (WEI) and the Global Gender Parity Index (GGPI). The WEI focused on women’s empowerment, to evaluate their power and freedom to make choices and seize opportunities. The GGPI evaluated the status of women relative to men to expose the gender gap. Evaluated together, they offer a big picture view into a countries progress towards women’s empowerment and gender equality.

What does gender equality feel like? Unfortunately, nobody really knows because it does not exist. None of the 114 countries analyzed in the report has achieved full women’s empowerment or complete gender parity. We may not know what full equality feels like, yet we do know that a lack of gender equality is a mental and physical health issue.

With a long-term mindfulness and meditation practice, experience as a psychotherapist, plus a ton of experience facilitating business meetings, my level of awareness regarding the nuances of human behavior is strong. Combined with education and up-to-date expertise in psychology and women’s issues, I have a contextual awareness and a felt sense of the energetic vibration of gender equality.

In March, U.N. chief, Secretary General António Guterres, spoke on the status of gender equality and outlined global atrocities, including the rolling back of women’s sexual and reproductive rights, and warned that women’s rights are now 300 years away from gender equality.

Guterres named the silencing of women as part of the challenge and mentioned the “misogynistic disinformation and misinformation” and social media gender trolling aimed at “silencing women and forcing them out of public life.”

The World Economic Forum’s G lobal Gender Gap Report 2023 was more optimistic naming a gap of 131 years and ranking the U.S. at 43rd, a drop from last year because of a sharp decline in the U.S. on the political empowerment index, a measure of the gap in the highest levels of political decision-making.

I am not sure how many years ahead I traveled by spending time in Sweden. Sweden Is not perfect so most likely not 300 years or even 131 years. I have heard some estimate it to be about 50 years.

How can we help the U.S. advance toward equality with a healthier culture that offers well-being and freedom to all its citizens? The issue is a psychological issue as everyone works to unpack and undo harmful patriarchal norms. This is especially an issue for women, as patriarchy, misogyny, sexism and gender-based oppression result in women’s identity-based trauma and the resulting internalized misogyny.

Travelers know that travel creates internal change for the better in fundamental ways. Mark Twain, in The Innocents Abroad (1869) famously said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Travel creates the opportunity to build understanding out of our earned experience and wisdom. Not everyone will have the privilege of international travel or spending time in Sweden. This does not mean we cannot choose to be open-minded and humble in our worldview.

We don’t necessarily need to travel to hear the data speak on gender equality. The way that we respond to this data will determine the nature of our future.

Sexism Contributes to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Sexism-Based Traumatic Stress (SBTS)

Mental Health Harm of Sexism & Misogyny

Women experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at higher rates than men. Researchers have looked for explanations of this difference. Until recently, they have been unable to identify contextual factors including rates of sexual assault, prior mental health conditions, or gender differences in symptom reporting biases.

The Counseling Psychologist published an article titled Sexist Microaggressions: Traumatic Stressors Mediated by Self Compassion and presented how our understanding has changed. There is a clearly built empirical foundation that links the systemic oppression of women and the resulting impact on women’s mental health, including PTSD.

This article offers more specific information on the data, links, and detrimental impacts of everyday sexism. The research findings presented support our understanding that sexist microaggressions are a major contributor to trauma symptomatology. Sexist microaggressions are a form of oppression-based trauma.

In addition, it presents an overview of Sexism-Based Traumatic Stress (SBTS), a form of identity-based trauma that results in psychological injury. This form of injury undermines self-compassion, and may create negative changes in self-regard, sense of worth and value. This supports our general everyday knowledge that women often struggle with these issues for no outwardly appearing reason.

Gender discrimination has been observed and studied as a known continuous, pervasive, lifelong trauma for females. Studies support the hypothesis that discrimination has made women more vulnerable to PTSD, complex PTSD, depression, anxiety, and has contributed to a higher comorbidity with other mental and physical health disorders. The intersectionality of racial discrimination and interpersonal trauma for black women has also been found to contribute to PTSD.

One of the most cited multicultural scholars, Dr. Derald Wing Sue in his book, Microaggressions in Everyday Life supports the idea that the cumulative effects of the sexist microaggressions endured by women has long been attributed to this mental health inequity. He states that “daily sexist microaggressions immerse women in a sea of discriminatory messages causing an accumulative strain.” He lists the many ways sexism harms women including contributing to depression, anxiety, stress, body image, eating disorders, self-esteem, identity, performance, standard of living and physical health outcomes.

As the Counseling Psychology study points out, given the evidence supporting that sexism functions as an everyday traumatic stressor, and creates trauma symptomatology, this may be the answer that researchers have sought in the higher rates of PTSD in women.

The findings also indicate that SBTS may be present in clients experiencing trauma symptomatology. The authors suggest that when women have trauma symptoms, but do not meet DSM Criterion A, or “exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence…” then clinicians may consider assessing for experience with sexist microaggressions.

Sexism and Misogyny Are Mental Health Issues

Mental Health Harm of Sexism & Misogyny

Women’s mental health is negatively impacted by sexism, misogyny and gender-based discrimination. Women are approximately twice as likely to experience depression, anxiety and trauma disorders. When considering how these factors can impact a person’s well-being, this is no small difference.

Women have higher rates of depression

The Center for Disease Control’s National Center for Health Statistics published a study finding that women in the United States are almost twice as likely to have depression. Gender differences in depression are well known and this study only confirms previous research. Not only do women have double the frequency, women experience depression with greater severity than men. Social issues impact these differences.

Women have a higher incidence of anxiety and trauma disorders

A study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research found the lifetime male:female prevalence ratios of any anxiety disorder was 1:1.7. The study also found a higher illness burden for women, making anxiety more disabling in women. It found this higher rate of diagnosis for each of the anxiety disorders examined including, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder (PD), agoraphobia without history of panic disorder (AG), specific phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD.) The study also found a higher incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It did not find a difference in social anxiety disorder, however, another more recent study found that women are more likely to have social anxiety disorder (SAD) and report greater clinical severity.

Why is there a gender difference in the prevalence of these mental health diagnosis? Some studies suggest that potential biological, hormonal factors, and postpartum may be central to mental health differences.

It is becoming increasingly clear that there are many potential gendered risk factors that contribute to mental health inequities including structural inequities and the feminization of poverty. Many studies seeking answers point to factors that directly point to the impact of sexism, misogyny and gender-based inequality, discrimination and abuse including interpersonal stressors, lower self-esteem, high body shame, and higher levels of fear, trauma, childhood sexual abuse and domestic violence.

As much as our patriarchal-centered cultures would like to attribute mental health inequities to other factors, I suggest that this deflection is a denial of culpability. This opinion is supported by research. A study published by the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys, Archives of General Psychiatry, Cross-National Associations Between Gender and Mental Disorders in the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys found that these gender differences in major depression were significantly lower when cultures had less traditional gender roles. This finding was consistent across times and places. When women’s roles are more equal to those of men, women are less depressed.

The starting place for healing women from the harmful mental health impact of sexism, misogyny and gender-based discrimination is having this knowledge. We need to address these issues so that women may take back the power of their mental health.