George Slavich and colleagues at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine have laid out a stark truth: women experience anxiety and depression at much higher rates than men, yet the health care system remains poorly equipped to help them. The researchers, whose recommendations are published in PNAS Nexus, argue that this gap exists partly because women make up half the world's population yet are the focus of relatively little research—a disparity that translates directly into deficits in mental health care.
The evidence is sobering. Women not only struggle with anxiety and depression more frequently than men, but they also face disproportionately high rates of autoimmune conditions, osteoporosis, heart disease, and stroke. Beyond biology, women experience violence and discrimination at higher rates than men, factors that compound the risk of developing both mental and physical health problems. These challenges deserve urgent attention and reform.
The researchers propose several concrete, evidence-based solutions. They call for additional research into women's hormones and their relationship to health—an area that has long been underfunded relative to its importance. They also urge expanded training for clinicians specifically in women's mental health, ensuring that providers have the expertise to recognize and treat conditions that may present differently in women than in men. Insurance reform is equally critical; the authors argue for changes that better reimburse clinicians for treating and preventing mental health issues, removing a financial barrier that currently discourages providers from offering comprehensive care. Beyond individual treatment, the researchers advocate for workforce investments to widen the pipeline for mental health care services, addressing the chronic shortage of providers.
Scalable solutions can help relieve the burden on an overwhelmed system. Group therapy, telehealth, and online support services offer ways to reach more women without requiring proportional increases in clinical staff. These tools are practical and proven, yet remain underutilized in many regions.
But the researchers also recognize that individual treatment can only go so far. They advocate for broader policies that reduce the stress women must cope with in the first place—addressing root causes rather than symptoms alone. Paid maternal leave, for instance, would ease the financial strain many women face during childbearing years. Restrictions on social media use by adolescents could protect young women from the documented mental health harms of excessive screen time and social comparison. Financial support for caregiving and home health services would ease the burden on women who often shoulder disproportionate responsibility for family care, frequently while working outside the home.
These recommendations represent a fundamental shift in thinking about women's mental health—moving beyond simply treating depression and anxiety to creating conditions where women are less likely to develop these conditions in the first place. The research, shaped by the National Academies' workshop organized for the United States Health Resources and Services Administration, offers a roadmap. Whether policymakers and health systems will follow it remains to be seen, but the evidence is clear: women's mental health care is broken, and fixing it will require commitment at every level, from the clinic to Congress.