The cost of competence
Subtitle: why inequality causes depression, eating disorders, and illness in women
By: Brett Silverstein, Deborah Perlick.
Contributors: Perlick, Deborah.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1995
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 214
Subjects: Women -- Mental health -- Sociological aspects; Sex role; Achievement motivation in women; Self-esteem in women; Eating disorders; Somatization disorder; Depression in women; Anxiety in women
Description: In The Cost of Competence, authors Brett Silverstein and Deborah Perlick argue that rather than simply labeling individual women as, say, anorexic or depressed, it is time to look harder at the widespread prejudices within our society and child-rearing practices that lead thousands of young women to equate thinness with competence and success, and femininity with failure.

They argue that continuing to treat depression, anxiety, anorexia and bulimia as separate disorders in young women can, in many cases, be a misguided approach since they are really part of a single syndrome. Furthermore, their fascinating research into the lives of forty prominent women from Elizabeth I to Eleanor Roosevelt show that these symptoms have been disrupting the lives of bright, ambitious women not for decades, but for centuries.

. Drawing on all the latest findings, rare historical research, cross-cultural comparisons, and their own study of over 2,000 contemporary women attending high schools and colleges, the authors present powerful new evidence to support the existence of a syndrome they call anxious somatic depression.

The authors show that identifying this devastating syndrome is a first step toward its prevention and cure. The Cost of Competence presents an urgent message to parents, educators, policymakers, and the medical community on the crucial importance of providing young women with equal opportunity, and equal respect.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-209) and index.