There is significant variability in gender patterns & meanings of suicidal behaviour within & across cultures. The cultural diversity in gender patterns & interpretations of suicidal behaviour challenges essentialist perspectives on gender & suicidal behaviour. It also challenges the assumption, common in industrialised countries, that women are protected from suicide as long as they stay “feminine” & subsumed within the family. This cultural diversity also points to the pitfalls of theorizing about clinical pheonomena as if they were culture-free, & calls for culturally grounded theory, research, & practice. (69 refs.) JA