Women

Women make a positive difference at every level of the College. We celebrate this every year on International Women’s Day (IWD), highlighting some of the incredible achievements made by women.

Women make a positive difference at every level of the College. We celebrate this every year on International Women’s Day (IWD), highlighting some of the incredible achievements made by women.

This year, we celebrated IWD (8 March 2024) with a range of activities – see our IWD page for more details.

We are proud of our history with many women in senior positions, including our first female president in 1939, Dr Helen Boyle.

At the College, we work to fight gender inequalities – examining why gender differences occur within the field of mental health. These differences occur particularly in the rates of common mental disorders - depression, anxiety and somatic complaints. Reducing the overrepresentation of women who are depressed would contribute significantly to lessening the global burden of disability caused by psychological disorders.

Though many mental illnesses seem to be gender-neutral, women often have different signs and symptoms, requiring different treatments and services to men.

At the College, we have a Special Interest Group for Women and Mental Health which works to improve the mental health of women everywhere. During March 2021, they celebrated their 25th anniversary by highlighting the stories of 25 amazing women, who were members, fellows, affiliates or trainees. These achievements were shared to coincide with International Women's Day 2021.

By increasing visibility we are helping to create an equal world, which we believe is an enabled world.

If you have any questions about our gender equality work, please contact us at equality@rcpsych.ac.uk.