Women Who Drink: Changing Images, Changing Realities

Abstract

Society's view of women with drinking problems offers a meaningful case study of a discredited social group. Recent practice and research challenges the notion that these women are “doubly deviant,” yet they bear the double burden of biases against alcoholics and against women. Factors associated with women's abuse of alcohol, with others' response to their behavior, and with women's use of treatment are closely associated with women's role in society. By incorporating content on women with drinking problems into the human behavior in the social environment curriculum, social work education can confront students' attitudes and teach them about the relationship between discredited groups and the social milieu.