What men and women consider stressful varies, partially due to different socialization patterns, socially derived needs/roles, etc. This leads to differences in how they interpret what happens to them and how much stress is experienced. In other words, what is stressful to a woman might not cause the same stress to a man based on how he was socialized.


Gender Differences in Stress Approaches 

Cigarette smoking is one (unhealthy) coping mechanism, because smoking can reduce discomfort. If men and women differ in what they view as stressful, smoking out of stress between them could vary. The same can be said about drug and alcohol use, as well as eating behavior. These differences are critical for understanding consequences of stress.



Gender Differences in Drug Use and "Unhealthy" Behaviors

Women have an elevated risk for autoimmune diseases and exhibit higher immunoglobulin levels than men. In addition, women's cell-mediated immune responses weaker than men's, and pregnancy reduces certain cellular functions. If immune function can be affected by, for example, sex hormones, then sex hormones are capable of affecting stress.


Gender Differences in Stress Affecting Immune Function

Gender differences are differences between men and women that might be behavioral or biological, causing variation in health. These different behaviors include: stress response, environmental experiences, biological processes. Many researchers ascribe to differences in socialization, while others focus on a hormone or organ system.


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As research shows, men and women do experience different levels of stress, thereby impacting their health. Focusing exclusively on the behavior, and health of young men results in generalizations and incomplete information about how we behave, why we're healthy, etc. If we expand research to include other groups (such as women), we can facilitate discovery of ways to avoid and treat these problems.


Conclusion: Gender, Stress, and Health

Baum, A., & Grunberg, N. E. (1991). Gender, Stress, and Health. Health Psychology, 10(2), 80–85. https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.10.2.80


Gender, stress, and health.

We can improve health research for men and women by adopting broader perspective in which gender, age, and cultural variables considered. We should also begin research health and behavior regarding men AND women. All of this will reveal psychosocial and biological mechanisms critical for understanding mortality, morbidity, and quality of life.

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