The exact number of people who suffer from a fear of women is generally unknown, but it is considered a very common issue. The reasons for the fear can vary quite a bit. Some may have a fear of women because they fear rejection in a romantic sense, or they may have suffered experiences in their lives where they were humiliated by women. Others fear women because something more serious such as physical abuse may have happened to them in the past.
The basic fear of rejection that many men feel when approaching women is an almost universal experience according to many experts. Some men are more able to control this fear than others, and that may be due to past experiences or differences in temperament. Some think this fear is an instinctive thing, while others think it is more of a learned behavior. There are also experts that think it has an ingrained component that is modified by past experiences.
Sometimes a fear of women can stem from a lack of understanding. Many men are particularly susceptible to this because they may be too focused on the differences between the sexes. These men may not feel that they can accurately predict what women will do, so they worry that something undesirable may occur at any moment. There is often a worry regarding how to act around women, partly because these men feel that women may have very different emotional triggers than men do.
For some people, the fear of women can even be somewhat crippling, on both a personal and professional level. A very strong fear of women can render a person unable to act normally in many different daily circumstances. The individual may even have physical symptoms of intense fear any time a woman approaches, including shaking and shortness of breath. These people may change their lifestyles so that they almost never interact with women, and that can make many normal life activities impossible or very difficult.
The method for dealing with the fear of women will often vary depending on the cause of the fear. For example, there are programs that teach men to approach women from a romantic perspective, giving them generally sound strategies for instigating conversations and techniques for improving confidence. In some cases, people may also need some kind of anti-anxiety medication or physiological therapy, although these options would generally be reserved for very intense cases.
