The notion that women are more emotional than men is entrenched in our cultural beliefs and consistently supported by research on sexlinked stereotypes (e.g., Birnbaum, Nosanchuk & Croll, 1980; Fabes & Martin, 1991; Fischer, 1993b). Men and women typically report differences in their general emotional experience, such as overall emotional intensity or expressivity (Grossman & Wood, 1993; Johnson & Shulman, 1988), as well as in the experience and expression of specific emotions (Birnbaum et al., 1980; Fabes & Martin, 1991; Shields, 1984). This stereotype is particularly evident in the literature on anxiety and depression, the emotions which are the topic of interest in this chapter. In general, women are believed to be more susceptible to and more expressive of anxious and depressed feelings than are men. The closely related emotions, fear and sadness, are often described as prototypical female emotional responses and seem to be central to the emotion based stereotype of men and women (Fabes & Martin, 1991; Shields, 1984).

Anxiety and depression can be defined as emotional states or as clinical syndromes. Although a number of studies have focused on sex differences in the clinical syndromes (e.g., Kessler, McGonagle, Zhao, Nelson, Hughes, Eshelman, Wittchen, & Kendler, 1994; Nolen- Hoeksema, 1987, 1990; Robins & Regier, 1991; Weissman & Klerman, 1977, 1985), this chapter focuses on sex differences in anxiety and depression as emotional experiences. Therefore, it is not our intent to provide a comprehensive review of the clinical literature on anxiety and depression, but we will refer to the clinical literature when it is relevant for understanding sex differences in anxiety and depression as emotional states.