Women for Sobriety: 35 Years of Challenges, Changes, and Continuity

Abstract

This article examines Women for Sobriety (WFS), an abstinence-based, secular recovery organization for women created as an alternative recovery strategy in contrast to the well-known 12-step approach. This comprehensive overview is intended to familiarize treatment professionals with WFS for its potential application in their treatment programs and referrals. Also considered in this article are how the WFS organization has fared during the past 20 years and where the organization is today, through comparison of results from two previously conducted WFS surveys in 1991 and 2011. Survey results suggest that the organization has evolved through the years by facing challenges and embracing change yet preserving necessary continuities.

KEYWORDS:

• women alcoholics
• 12-step alternatives
• Women for Sobriety
• addiction recovery

Acknowledgments

The Women for Sobriety (WFS) organization is greatly indebted to Lee Ann Kaskutas, Ph.D., of the Alcohol Research Group in Berkeley, CA. Her research, analysis, and professional attention during the past two decades has been invaluable, from her initial contact with WFS founder Dr. Jean Kirkpatrick through WFS today. Without her insightful contributions to our understanding of ourselves, especially in her seminal work on the first survey of WFS in 1991, this article would not have been possible. We thank Dr. Kaskutas for her ongoing support as an interested friend of the organization.

Notes

1. Throughout the article, the descriptions of and discussion of the WFS organization, its program, philosophy, and other WFS-specific content reflect the views and writings of WFS founder Dr. Jean Kirkpatrick and the organization today; further, unless it is specifically noted otherwise in the text, information comes in most part from the body of written materials produced and copyrighted by WFS since its inception.

2. The term “4C” refers to the four qualities emphasized in the WFS motto: capable, competent, caring, compassionate. To be a 4C woman is to be part of the sisterhood of WFS.