How Feminism Victimized Women, Became a Form of Mental Illness

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Contact: Henry Herrera

Telephone: +1-301-801-0608

How Feminism Victimized Women, Became a Form of Mental Illness

May 25, 2026 – Around the world, young women are facing a profound mental health crisis (1). Compared to men:

Canada: Girls in grades 7-12 are far more likely to experience fair to poor mental health, compared to boys.
Denmark: Females 16-24 are twice as likely to have poor mental health.
Finland: Fifteen-year-old girls are twice as likely to have depressive symptoms.
Sweden: Females 16-29 are twice as likely to have severe anxiety.
United Kingdom: A recent study found young women are more angry, pessimistic, and left-wing than their male peers (2).
United States: Females 18-21 years old are twice as likely as men to report a broad range of problems such as “Felt nervous all/most of the time in past 30 days.” (1, Figure 1)

A recent article by psychiatrist Hannah Spier, The Psychological Cost of Female Empowerment, probes this global epidemic (3). She pinpoints the source of female discontent in five words: “brainwashing women into victim ideology.”

As early as the 1980s, women’s studies courses were teaching students to view female life in terms of power, discrimination, and subordination. Women were admonished to view their experiences of frustration, disappointment, and disagreement through a Marxist lens: “It’s all the fault of patriarchy,” they were informed (4).

Before long, these themes migrated from the classroom into the mass media. The following examples are only a sampling from the broader cultural narrative that feminists promoted over the following years:

1971: Judy Brady’s “I Want a Wife,” published in Ms., recast the wife as a sexual services provider, career enabler, and emotional support system. (5)
1968 to the 1990s: The Virginia Slims cigarette campaign, “You’ve come a long way, baby,” enabled a theme of female self-possession. Liberation morphed into autonomy and detachment from old restraints. (6)
1991: Thelma & Louise focused on the themes of male violence and women’s belief that the authorities would not believe them. (7)
1996: The First Wives Club portrayed contempt of men and coordinated retaliation as a twisted expression of female solidarity. (8)
2022: An article in Cosmopolitan magazine described male “weaponized incompetence” as “one of the most manipulative and effective tactics men use to exploit women for labor.” (9)

These popular messages have left devastating consequences on women’s family relationships. Beginning around 1980, marriage rates in the United States, Poland, Mexico, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere began to plummet (10). Fertility fell, as well.

One woman responded to Hannah Spier’s article by admitting, “I’m 42 now and I look back on my attitudes as a young woman with nothing but regret. My grievances these days are with feminism and the popular culture that shaped my views back then, and not with men at all.” (11)

So when will women band together and condemn the feminist cultural message that has proven so injurious to female happiness and well-being?

The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance – DAVIA — unites 233 member organizations from 43 countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, Latin America, and North America. DAVIA seeks to ensure that domestic violence and abuse policies are science-based, family-affirming, and gender-inclusive. https://endtodv.org/coalitions/davia/

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