Premium
Historical and Political Perspective: Women and Drug Use
Author(s) -
Gomberg Edith S. Lisansky
Publication year - 1982
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1982.tb00115.x
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , recreational drug , politics , recreation , colonialism , recreational drug use , drug , criminology , psychology , gender studies , sociology , medicine , psychiatry , political science , law , artificial intelligence , computer science
Societies have usually regulated the use of drug substances with differences in rules of usage for men and women. This paper explores the political and historical factors contributing to this difference. Gender is linked to the use of drugs for therapeutic or recreational purposes and there seems to be greater social sanction for medicinal use for women. Women are bigger users of psychoactive drugs. Some possible reasons discussed are women's physiology, the relative health status of men and women, different aspects of sexually assigned role, and socially determined double standards in substances prescribed and proscribed. Women and alcohol in the U.S. history are traced from colonial days through the temperance movement to the present.