American nurse Lindsay Clancy killed her three young children in 2023 before attempting suicide, and a jury last week failed to reach a unanimous verdict on whether she was legally insane at the time due to severe postpartum psychosis, resulting in a mistrial. In this opinion piece, columnist Clare Foges argues the case has split public opinion sharply along gender lines, with many women expressing sympathy for Clancy while men are more likely to view her as simply a murderer.

Foges contends this divide stems from women's lived understanding of how hormonal changes, such as those causing PMS or postpartum psychosis, can drastically affect mood and behaviour, alongside their grasp of how isolating and exhausting caring for young children can be. She notes hundreds of women demonstrated outside the courtroom wearing shirts reading "She Needed Help", while the single juror who would not accept a not-guilty-by-insanity verdict was male, illustrating the split she describes running through public reaction and even her own household.