International Women’s Day, held annually on March 8, is a permanent part of what we might call the “awareness calendar” – the loose collection of days, weeks and months dedicated to informing the public about various issues. It is unfortunate that some men’s response to IWD is to ask “when is International Men’s Day?”, especially when the answer is that it already exists, on November 19, and is designed to highlight issues men face, such as abuse, homelessness, suicide and violence.
Putting aside the issue of IWD in bad faith, the relative lack of awareness of Men’s Day versus Women’s Day illustrates how men’s mental health remains a particularly difficult nut to crack. It is true that recent decades have seen a huge improvement in our attitudes towards mental health in general. But men still struggle to talk about their problems – while statistics vary, women are far more likely to be open about their mental health.
Part of the reason for this is that we are worse at recognizing male mental health conditions. As we report, around 40 percent of people don’t know that men can experience postpartum depression—perhaps unsurprisingly, given cultural attitudes toward parenting. Childbirth is rightly recognized as a transformative experience for women, but although fathers are more often in the delivery room these days than down the pub, they are still seen as fairly minor proceedings. Dad can’t be bad, you think, because moms have it worse.
“ 40 percent of people do not know that men can experience postpartum depression “
It is a mistake to view mental health as a zero-sum game in this way, and we still have much more to do in understanding how male depression presents itself – often as withdrawal and risk-taking, rather than tears and sadness. Hopefully, International Men’s Day can do some of the work to raise awareness, but we must also remember that awareness is simply not enough. The healthcare system must take mental health of all kinds much more seriously, and treat it on an equal footing with physical health.
