There aren’t many white-collar fields in the U.S. in which an outside observer can look around and ask: “Where are all the men?” But that’s precisely the case in the field of psychology, and in master’s degree programs in psychology, where roughly 80% of students are women, according to figures from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Interestingly enough, the exact opposite issue was occuring decades ago both in the field and classrooms—the vast majority of students were, at one time, men. But currently, it’s not uncommon for a master’s in psychology program to have, say, only one or two students who are men among a cohort of 15.
The gender disparity in the field alone isn’t necessarily problematic, though it can create issues for men who are looking for therapists or psychologists that specialize in issues relating to men—much like how some therapists may focus on working with women with mental or psychological postpartum complications. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only exacerbated the dynamic.
“The pandemic stressed everybody out,” says Ronald Levant, a psychologist who recently retired as a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Akron. He’s also the former president of the American Psychological Association and co-author of the book, The Tough Standard: The Hard Truths about Masculinity and Violence.
“We’ve seen an increase in demand for services for all sorts of things” in the psychology field, Levant says, adding that includes demand for male therapists and psychologists, or those specializing in working with men. But this demand isn’t met with sufficient supply. “The word among psychologists is that we don’t have anybody to refer them to, and they don’t have room” to take on additional patients, he adds.
As such, many men who may have otherwise found a psychologist gave up, and are left to try and work through their mental health or psychological issues on their own.
‘Men may not feel like they belong’
Roughly one out of four therapists in the U.S. are men currently. But the numbers for younger therapists are even more uneven, with men making up only 5% of psychologists under the age of 30 as of 2020. This is a dynamic that Jett Stone, a clinical psychologist who practices in New York and Connecticut, recently wrote about in an article in Psychology Today.
At his practice, Stone says he focuses on men’s issues, which he admits is “not so common” in the field. Stone also says that men who are seeking male therapists really don’t have many options—it’s not unusual for the male therapists who are practicing to be booked solid, and they often don’t have other therapists they can send prospective patients to.
This is a problem, Stone notes, and given the continued gender disparity seen in higher-ed psychology programs, there’s no influx in the supply of male therapists on the horizon.
As for why there are so few men in the field? “Men may not feel like they belong,” Stone says. There can be deep-rooted reasons for that, too. “Boys are conditioned to be tough, strong providers, and in some ways, that runs up against the idea of psychology being soft or weak, because of the female presence.”
Gender roles aside, Stone says that women in the field may simply be more ambitious, and if a man is working through a master’s in psychology program as the only male in the class, that, too, “can impact motivation to continue,” he says. “I can’t say for certain, but that’s played a role in the drop-out rate.”.
While ingrained gender norms are at play, Levant says for men looking into the psychology field, it often boils down to one thing: Money. Given that it can take more than a decade to become a full-fledged practicing professional in the field, the earning potential simply doesn’t add up for a lot of men. “At the end of all that work, they might be earning like $70,000,” he says. “It’s a little hard to take.”
What schools can do to attract more men
Levant says that “certain professions have been called ‘pink collar,’” pointing to nursing and elementary education as a couple of examples. “Men who conform to masculine norms tend to shy away from them.” Psychology has also become one of those fields.
Stone agrees that cultural and societal expectations around what men are supposed to do—or what they feel like they’re supposed to do—are creating logjams in the men-to-psychology pipeline. Earning potential, too, is an issue, and neither is easy to work around. Both Stone and Levant note an increase in interest in fields like nursing in recent years among men—likely because nurses experienced a bump in earnings due to pandemic-induced staff shortages—and that could be a good sign for psychology. What’s more, the field may benefit from leaders discussing the opportunities in psychology with more men and boys at a younger age.
“We need to educate them about these career options,” Stone says. “We need to offer scholarships—we need to do what we can to encourage more young men to become therapists.”
While focusing on the professional struggles of men in white-collar professions in 2023 can be particularly tricky, as Stone acknowledges, it doesn’t mean that men’s struggles aren’t valid, important, or any less real. As such, he thinks it’s important that we make strides to try and attract more men to the field.
“We’re never going to reach a 50-50 ratio” between men and women in psychology, he says. “But we can encourage, at a young age, more boys and young men to see the psychology fields as viable.”
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