Music artist Chess Galea no longer suppresses anger she once feared would brand her as "hysterical" or "difficult to work with." Now, she says, she lets it out without restraint. "If someone catcalls me in the street, I rage. I don't care."
Galea is part of a measurable shift. One in five British women reported feeling angry during much of the previous day in 2024, up from one in ten in 2020, according to data cited in the BBC report. For nearly two decades, more women than men worldwide have reported experiencing daily anger, and the gap has been widening.
Psychotherapist Jennifer Cox, author and co-host of the Women are Mad podcast, suggests the increase reflects both genuine rise in anger and greater willingness to acknowledge it. Cox began researching anger after noticing her female clients exhibited patterns of physical symptoms, including migraines, stomach issues, and musculoskeletal problems, that stemmed from suppressed anger. She ran group sessions where women released pent-up feelings.
Cox attributes the shift partly to generational expectation. "We've been brought up with this ridiculous 'good girl' stuff," she says. "The big change from previous generations is that we are expected to do it all." Women spend nearly an hour longer each day than men doing unpaid work such as chores or caring, according to the Office for National Statistics.
Cultural representation has also changed. Where characters like Glenn Close's Alex Forrest in Fatal Attraction were once portrayed as unstable and dangerous, contemporary media increasingly frames female rage as understandable or even liberating. Lily Allen's 2025 album West End Girl, Charli XCX, Olivia Rodrigo, and Chappell Roan have released songs featuring violent imagery and screams of rage. The 2023 Barbie film showed the iconic doll expressing frustration with her world.
These depictions carry value, Cox says, but real-world expression carries a cost. A 2020 study found women expressing anger at work were seen as less deserving of status and influence, while male counterparts faced no such penalty.
Life coach Yann Dang, who specializes in coaching senior women in male-dominated fields, argues women can advance by harnessing anger authentically. Direct language matters: "That's a hard no for me," "I don't like that," and "I'm frustrated too" help establish boundaries.
Psychologist Tara Brach frames anger as a messenger signaling injustice. Channeling it effectively requires mindfulness, particularly through the "RAIN" strategy: recognise the emotion, allow yourself to experience it, investigate the cause, and nurture understanding.