Women and Asylums
Abstract: The 19th c. England saw a massive growth in mental asylums. Both the number of asylums and the number of patients held in asylums increased exponentially. I start by documenting the characteristics of asylum patients using full-count British population censuses and their circumstances following committals. Consistent with the widespread impression, asylum patients were more likely to be female. I then show substantial variation in the share of female patients across the regions. To understand the cause of the gender disparities in asylum patients, I examine the cause of admission in over 140,000 cases and find evidence that gendered cultural norms and beliefs were crucial in committing a patient to asylum. Finally, using a natural experiment — the Married Women’s Property Act 1882 — I show that increased control over financial means alleviated the incidence of mental illness for women.
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