Historical references conjure up negative images of crowded insane asylums, where men and women segregated by gender were housed for years or decades. Then came the enlightened age of social psychiatry, where social determinants of mental health came to the forefront, prompting re-examination of gender-based segregation of inpatients. If men and women were going to rejoin the "outside world" in a socially acceptance manner, the institutional environment needed to become more "normalized." This ushered in the movement to establish mixed-gender inpatient units.
