Situation Report

IF statistics mean anything, American women are having a harder time today than they were a few years ago. For one thing, female suicide is on the rise. While it has long been true that more men than women kill themselves, the ratio has changed. This is true across the country, but the change is particularly marked in certain large cities. In Los Angeles in 1960, for example, 35% of the people who committed suicide were women. Last year the figure had risen to 45%. Another change: while women have always failed more often in suicide attempts than men, the difference is no longer as great--women are becoming more adept at killing themselves.

The higher suicide rate is only one evidence that women are experiencing more conflict. A recent University of Wisconsin study suggests that women psychiatric patients today complain of more anxiety, depression, alienation and inability to cope with stress than did their counterparts of ten years ago. The researchers found no such trend among men. Relatively unchanged over the past few years is the fact that more women than men are in therapy for minor emotional troubles, and, according to some psychiatrists, more male than female patients are "seriously impaired." A major reason for these differences may well be society's willingness to let women complain of feeling anxious while frowning on men who do likewise. As a result, men may keep their symptoms to themselves until they break down completely.

In drug addiction, there appears to be a tiny decrease among women: in 1969, 16% of the nation's addicts were women, compared with 15% last year. Now, as in the past, there are estimated to be five times more men than women alcoholics. Women still begin drinking heavily later than men--in their early 30s instead of 20s. But once started, women drinkers deteriorate faster into alcoholism.

Another difference is the increase in the out-of-wedlock birth rate among girls from 15 to 19: from 8.3% per 1,000 unmarried teen-agers in 1940 to 19.8% in 1971. Surprisingly, Indiana University Sociologist Phillips Outright believes that increased sexual activity at this age level is a "relatively minor factor"; a more important cause is improved health. There is also a striking rise in the number of unmarried mothers who keep their babies. No nationwide records are kept, but one Boston social agency reports an increase among whites from 10% a decade ago to 45% in 1970.

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