As Western society increases in complexity and becomes more reliant on technology, women who thrive as integrators in interactional modes will face new dilemmas. Many women will view these changes as challenges, but for many other women, who view these changes as threats, the response will be depression. We lay a foundation to an understanding of depression in women, evaluating the current concept of depression and pointing out its limitations. We then review the traditional theories of women's increased vulnerability to depressive disorders, which have failed to explain adequately this phenomenon. A more recent theory of women's depression, based on the self‐in‐relation theory of women's development, is offered as an alternative.