Until Peter Pan Syndrome came to be applied exclusively to males, it used to be applied equally to females, as in the article below from the Aberdeen Press and Journal – Friday 04 November 1938. This article describes women who ‘play’ at being helpless in order to garner sympathies and labor from others.

NB. For the sake of accuracy, the female behavior being described here is not strictly that of the Peter Pan archetype (which Jungians refer to as the puer/puella aeternus). The behavior is associated with what the Jungians refer to as the ‘child archetype’ – which is a more helpless presentation than the resourceful youth Peter Pan.