"What do women want?" Freud famously asked. As it turns out, many of them want just what he did: to explore the intricacies and oddities of human behavior.
So many are evincing interest, in fact, that psychotherapy is increasingly becoming a female-dominated profession. According to C. R. Snyder, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of Kansas-Lawrence, the number of women graduating with psychology degrees has grown by more than 70 percent since the early 1970s, while degrees given to men have fallen sharply. Today, about three-fourths of B.A.s and two-thirds of advanced degrees in psychology go to women.
What will the trend mean for therapy? "This is where the debate gets raucous and controversial," Snyder says. While cautioning against the dangers of stereotyping, he notes that research shows that females have readier access to emotions than males, are less confrontational and more sensitive. Twenty-first century therapy may be a "kinder and gentler" practice, he says, characterized by closer bonds between client and counselor.
