The underrepresentation of men in the psychology field.
Research shows men are far less likely to seek therapy than women, this dynamic also affects the number of men to women studying psychology and working in the psychological field.
Where it all began
Previous statistics from early 70’s show that the ratio of men to women use to favour men however in the last decades this has quickly taken a turn. Speculation suggest that as women entered the psychology force; due to gender pay inequalities slaries of the overal psychologist lowered and views of the validity of the field changed. This drove away males from pursuing psychology as back then the field lost some credibility and didnt seem like a feesable degree when supporting solely a family, widening the gap even more.
Statistics suggest that now days 64% of working psychologist are women whilst 36% are men. A study suggest in research women where represented 60%-40% however most male studies focused on addiction. Overall, he found that 11% of the studies had no male participants at all, and 23% of the studies only contained data from six males or less. When it comes to education women make 76% of new psychology doctorates.
Effect on studying
This has a snowball effect on males wanting to study psychology as they might feel undesrepresented in the classroom, having low diversity in the field might limit their learning, and the social aspect of not having male mates to related to might deter them form the subject.
Effect on the population
This then affects the work force available to provide a service as fewer men make it into the clinical world. Tis is bad as There are many working class and/or Black boys who are struggling in school and their community environments for reasons obvious to people on this sub, and often times the boy or his parents request a male therapist and very few are available. Clients like to see people who look like them, there is concern that there won’t be enough male therapists to serve predominantly male populations — prisoners or soldiers, for example." says. John Farrell, PhD, a clinical psychologist in Homewood, Ill.
Effect on reserach
The research field also gets affected as men and women have quite different average experiences with dating and relationships, with sexuality and reproduction, with parenthood, with expressing emotions, with friendships, with mental health including suicide-risks and with bullying. Psychology is a field where a balance of different perspectives can help researchers go deeper into things and analyse topics from more than one point of view
There is an effort to include men more in the field of psychology. However, at this time, little effort is actually having an effect.