The trauma sustained from sexual abuse is more likely to lead to a greater dissociation with reality as the child attempts to block out what has been done to them by someone they love and depend upon (if the abuser is a member of their family). As girls are more likely to be sexually abused than boys this may explain to some degree why women are more likely to suffer from BPD than men.
As discussed in “Why Do People Suffer with NPD?” children can have strong reactions to constant perceived criticism. Boys and girls usually have different ways of dealing with criticism. Girls tend to internalise the criticism they receive whereas boys tend to cast it out. This may be explained by the fact that the female brain functions in a different way to that of a male brain. It could also be due to the manner in which girls are primarily socialised as nurturers who shoulder the burden when things go wrong within the family. This role of the female nurturer is also encouraged through the mass media. This conditioning may lead to low-self esteem and feelings of guilt that are evidenced in patients with BPD. This guilt and low-self esteem is one of the reasons why women tend to seek help more often than men in order to allow a diagnosis to be made.
Women are also conditioned to be subordinates to partners and are therefore “more prone to anxiety, depression, and feelings of helplessness than men. Similarly, submissiveness and fear of abandonment are more consistent with women’s social role than men’s” (Bockian pg. 46).
In addition to their tendency to cast out criticism boys are encouraged (more so than girls) to act out any aggression they feel towards others through viable channels e.g. contact sports and competition in business. As a result they are less likely to suffer from guilt and low self-esteem.
Some Psychologist’s believe the reason there are more women diagnosed with BPD than men is because the Psychologist making the diagnosis has their own bias and stereotypes of relating to the sexes e.g. a man who acts out in anger and takes part in self-damaging behaviour such as alcohol abuse is seen as antisocial rather than emotionally disturbed.