10 Things you Should Know About Women & Trauma

Whether you are a woman who has experienced a traumatic event or are wondering how to support a female partner who has experienced a traumatic event, it is helpful to know more about how gender impacts the way women experience trauma. Gender can influence the way people experience trauma due to expectations of behavior based on social/cultural gender norms, how much a person ascribes to gender role socialization and how their gender has influenced the way they see not only themselves, but also the story they tell themselves about the traumatic event. Consider the following facts about women and trauma:

1. Types of Trauma: Women are more likely than men to experience sexual violence. Women are at risk for experiencing sexual violence across their lifespan, with most sexual assaults occurring in adulthood. Women are also more likely to experience trauma that is recurrent (ex: physical violence from domestic partner, being sexual abused by family member over time).
2. Who Causes the Trauma: Women are more likely to be harmed by their relationship partners or by people they know. This increases the risk of developing PTSD and can lead to trust issues.
3. Immediate Symptoms: After a traumatic event women are more likely to report emotional responses (feeling anxious, depressed, difficulty regulating emotion) and dissociation.
4. Trauma as a Personal Failure: Women are more likely to blame themselves for the traumatic event and view themselves negatively after a traumatic event. This may be related to gender socialization in which women feel more responsible for interpersonal failures. In addition, victim blaming of survivors of sexual violence contributes to women being more vulnerable to blaming themselves.  
5. Institutional Betrayal: Women are more likely to experience institutional betrayal (when an institution that is in some way involved in the trauma fails to prevent traumatic events or fails to protect and support survivors of trauma). Institutional betrayal increases the risk of developing PTSD, anxiety, depression and can increase the risk of suicide. Institutional betrayal also has financial, career and quality of life consequences that can make healing from the traumatic event even more difficult.
6. Difficulty Accessing Anger: Girls and women are often socialized to believe that women “should not” be angry, and expression of anger is not “becoming” of girls and women. Often women who experience depression, self-harm and anxiety are suppressing their anger, and may need help tapping into this emotion to heal. Women may need support in identifying healthy ways to express and release anger as few role models exist and socially women are still penalized and viewed negatively when they express anger.
7. “Good Girl” Behaviors Put Women at Risk: Girls and women are socialized to be polite and accommodating of others, sadly even when it puts them at risk for being taken advantage of and hurt by others. It can be disorienting and upsetting to reconcile how these behaviors contributed to putting them at risk for the traumatic experience. Post-trauma women may struggle with what it means to be a “woman” in a social context and how to protect oneself in a world that penalizes women for expressing assertiveness and anger.  
8. Developing Assertiveness Skills: Female survivors, especially those of sexual trauma, often need help learning assertiveness skills—not only for discussing and negotiating sexual interactions, but also for interactions with peers, coworkers and even family members.
9. Higher Risk of Sexual Dysfunction and Sexual Dissatisfaction: Women who have been sexually abused (the most common type of trauma for women) are at a greater risk to experience a range of sexual issues including difficulties with orgasm, sexual pain, low sexual desire and even more disruptive menopause symptoms. Women who experienced sexual trauma during adolescence report the greatest sexual dysfunctions and sexual dissatisfaction.   
10. Support: Women are generally more responsive to emotion-focused interventions and are more likely to seek support from others. Always ask your specific female partner what they need in terms of support, but be mindful that women are more likely to be emotionally expressive when reacting to a traumatic event and may want support in processing the traumatic event.