Women at the heart of mental science: commentary, Pinto da Costa et al

Women's mental health is shaped by the intersection of rights, cultural norms and stigma, which together create a silent architecture that structures both vulnerability and resilience.In many societies, overt restrictions on women's rights (e.g.access to education, employment or healthcare) reinforce unequal power and limit opportunities for autonomy and well-being.Gendered expectations may also dictate how distress can be expressed, often silencing women's experiences.Stigma frames mental health conditions as moral weakness or dishonour, deterring women from seeking help and perpetuating cycles of exclusion.Addressing mental health conditions requires broader social transformation, advancing gender equality and dismantling cultural stigma to promote psychological well-being.As highlighted in a recent editorial, 1 the US government's move to restrict language and research funding focusing on sex and gender poses a direct threat to scientific progress, especially for vulnerable populations.Among the terms targeted are 'female' and 'women', groups that represent nearly half the world's population.This is not a semantic issue: it undermines decades of effort to redress historical exclusion.Women have long been underrepresented, not only as research participants but also in the framing of research questions, generating research and in scientific leadership across preclinical, translational and clinical research, including psychiatry. 2 This exclusion has resulted in scientific data largely derived from males, based on the priorities of men.It has shaped our understanding of mental health conditions, their aetiology, symptomatology, pathophysiology and treatment.