Addressing the Double Bind of Women’s Anger After Trauma

Modern society is grappling with understanding and responding to women’s anger in a sociopolitical environment where, globally, violence against women is considered an epidemic, economic crises disproportionately affect women, and rights to access comprehensive reproductive health care are being eroded. There is much for women to be angry about, yet nascent scientific evidence exists on the phenomenology and consequences of women’s anger and its important link to trauma.

Anger itself is not pathological, rather a vital emotion for harmonious social functioning, motivating us to address individual, social, and systemic injustices. The emotion-focused models of trauma extend on this by positing that anger is normal and adaptative in response to the threat, powerlessness, injustice, and betrayal that typifies traumatic events. However, for a significant number of individuals, posttrauma anger can become problematic. Problem anger is defined as anger that occurs with a level of frequency and intensity that causes significant distress and interferes with functioning. More than just an epiphenomenon or transdiagnostic feature of other psychiatric disorders, problem anger has demonstrated a unique contribution to the impacts of psychological trauma. These impacts include increased risk of harm to self and others and poorer financial, relationship, and employment outcomes, even when controlling for other psychiatric disorders.