1
Women and Depression Project in Finland: feminist action research, women friendly groups and
welfare dynamics
Irmeli Laitinen and Elizabeth Ettorre,
University of Plymouth,
Drake Circus,
Plymouth PL4 8AA,
Devon, England
Introduction
Social and cultural explanations of depression reflect lay approaches to care, while within this
approach, depression is linked with feelings of sadness and dejection resulting in an increasingly
pessimistic outlook on life (Carter and Minirith, 1995; Rowe, 1993; Yapko, 1988). More importantly,
lay approaches confirm depression not only as a health problem but also as a reflection of the
relationship of the sufferer to the community (Kangas, 2001). On the other hand, individualised
explanations replicate medicalisation (Nikelly, 1995) when depression is shaped as a mental disorder,
chronic malady or psychiatric sickness with markedly high health care costs (Simon et al., 1995). In
the medical model, symptoms are spread over different aspects of functioning including motivational,
emotional, cognitive, behavioural and biological (Gilbert, 2000).
Between three to five percent of the general population experience clinical depression with
women being twice as likely as men to develop both moderate and severe depression (Stoppard, 2000;
Bhatia and Bhatia, 1999; Paykel, 1991; Nolen-Hoeksema, 1990). The prevalence of major depression
in women has been found to vary from one and a half to three and a half times that of men, depending
upon the country (Alegira and Canino, 2000). Depression has been defined as ’the single most serious
mental problem for women’ (Paltiel, 1993:204), while major depression is the most serious mental
disorder in women world-wide (Smyre, 1991:123).
The guiding assumption of this paper is that depression is a gendered phenomenon: gender
dynamics affect depression in women and depressed women (Jack, 1991), while welfare dynamics
shape the overall well being of individuals (Allardt, 1976), including depressed women. In this paper
we ask, Can women friendly care practices in Finland help depressed women? If yes, in what ways?
We explore answers to these questions with reference to a project for depressed women.
Developing feminist action research
Page 1 of 18 
Convention