Women In Alcoholics Anonymous

244 Pages·2017·1.61 MB·English

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Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Summer 2015
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Ariel Larson
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Larson, A. (2015). Women In Alcoholics Anonymous: A Qualitative Research Study (Doctoral dissertation,
Duquesne University). Retrieved from https://dsc.duq.edu/etd/799
This Immediate Access is brought to you for free and open access by Duquesne Scholarship Collection. It has been
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WOMEN IN ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS:
A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH STUDY

A Dissertation
Submitted to the McAnulty College and Graduate School
of Liberal Arts

Duquesne University

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

By
Ariel Larson

May 2015
Copyright by
Ariel Larson

2015
WOMEN IN ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS:

A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH STUDY

By

Ariel Larson

Approved May 1, 2015

________________________________ ________________________________
Russell Walsh, Ph.D. Jessie Goicoechea, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology Assistant Professor of Psychology
(Committee Chair) (Committee Member)

________________________________
Michael Flaherty, Ph.D.
Guest Reader
(Committee Member)

________________________________ ________________________________
James Swindal, Ph.D. Leswin Laubscher, Ph.D.
Dean, McAnulty College Chair, Psychology Department
Professor of Psychology

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ABSTRACT

WOMEN IN ALCOHOLICS ANONYMOUS:
A QUALITATIVE RESEARCH STUDY

By
Ariel Larson
August 2015

Dissertation supervised by Russ Walsh, PhD
This research looks at how women in particular navigate the complicated power
dynamics of twelve-step programs, specifically AA, to achieve long-term sobriety. This
study attempts to understand how women in AA are appropriating and shaping AA and
its reliance on the twelve-steps in unique and resourceful ways to make recovery their
own. The methodological approach of this study is empirical-phenomenological.
Interviews with five female members of Alcoholics Anonymous were conducted,
transcribed and analyzed in an attempt to identify and understand how women approach
and adapt recovery strategies and technologies that evolved during the twentieth century
to meet the needs of alcoholic men. Discussion of findings is structured as a comparison
and dialogue with Metaphors of Transformation: Feminine and Masculine (White and
iv
Chaney, 1993), which also looks at the experience and language of women in recovery,
applying a meta-analysis of theory, science, practice and experience. White and Chaney’s
approach is not grounded in a specific phenomenological analysis, but is perhaps the
most definitive work to date examining the need for gender specific understanding in AA
and recovery. Results of the current study suggest that themes of empowerment,
resolution of shame, and connection with other women are particularly important for
gender-specific treatment.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………….iv

2. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………...1

3. Method ……………………………………………………………………………….............14

4. Results ………………………………………………………………………………..............20

Table 1……………………………………………………………………...............21

5. Discussion…………………………………………………………………………………….41

Table 2……………………………………………………………………...............42

6. References …………………………………………………………………………..............87

7. Appendix A: Consent Form…………………………………………………...............91

8. Appendix B: Recruitment Flier ……………………………………………..............94

9. Appendix C: Participant Transcripts……………………………………...............95
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Introduction
The following study will explore women’s experiences of Alcoholics
Anonymous, and their ways of navigating through its predominantly male-oriented
treatment paradigm. Consistent with a growing literature concerned with minority access
to treatment services and mechanisms of recovery in a variety of cultural contexts this
project will employ a phenomenological method to delineate the unique and common
features of women who achieved sobriety through participation in AA.
Prevalence
Epidemiological data suggests substance use disorders and the accompanying
difficulties are pervasive, touching the lives of most, if not all, Americans in some form.
According to The Journal of the American Medical Association, rates of alcohol abuse
and dependence are “highly prevalent and disabling” (Hasin, 2007, p. 830). JAMA
reported a lifetime prevalence of alcohol abuse at 17.8%, and reported that 4.7% of
individuals interviewed said they abused alcohol within twelve months of the survey.
Alcohol dependence was reported at a lifetime rate of 12.5% with 3.8% reporting
dependence within twelve months of the survey. Dependence rates were higher among
men, whites, Native Americans and respondents who were middle-aged, younger, had
lower incomes and were single adults. As a group, middle-aged Americans had the
highest prevalence of lifetime dependence, which is associated with significant disability
and a number of substance and alcohol use disorders. In addition to increased risks for
automobile accidents and fetal alcohol effects, alcohol dependent individuals are more
likely to have financial and legal difficulties, mood, anxiety and personality disorders,
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neuropsychological impairment and problems taking medication as prescribed (Hasin, et
al, 2007).
The Origins of Alcoholics Anonymous
Understanding of alcohol addiction as an illness has increased since the 1930’s,
when the successful lobbying efforts of Alcoholics Anonymous made the disease model
relatively common, whereas before it was almost universally considered a moral failing
(Conrad and Schneider, 1992). The first notable proponent of the alcoholism as disease
argument was Benjamin Rush, a prominent physician, signer of the Declaration of
Independence and influential American colonist. But Rush was before his time. During
the late 18th and the 19th centuries, temperance efforts and reform clubs came and went as
“inebriates” (White, 1998) were housed in any institution that would take them, from
charitable homes and jails to workhouses or even lunatic asylums. These alcoholics,
almost exclusively male, were not treated for their alcoholism until professional treatment
began to emerge in the late 1800’s. Early efforts were highly ineffective and alcoholics
were usually considered hopeless cases until mutual aid groups began to take hold. It
wasn’t until 1935 and the birth of AA, that alcoholics began to band together to find hope
and fellowship (White, 1998) and to garner the attention and support that would carry
their organization forward until it became the internationally represented, household
name that it is today. Ultimately AA, with its emphasis on a modified disease or allergy
model and addiction as a chronic, irreversible condition, would change the national and
even international understanding of the chronic drunk, urging us toward the
medicalization of a formerly moral condition.
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After 75 years of growth, membership estimated at well over two million,
meetings on every continent, four editions of the Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous
available in 58 languages, and vigorous outreach programs aimed at physicians and other
healthcare professionals (aa.org), AA has helped to destigmatize alcoholism. For a
number of reasons— ranging from social and economic forces colliding at the right time
and place (aided by AA founder Bill Wilson’s vision and charisma) to the effectiveness
of AA’s program for many alcoholics who previously had little hope—AA spread far and
wide, followed by Al-anon/Al-Ateen for families of alcoholics, and Narcotics
Anonymous. Later there was a veritable explosion of twelve-step groups styled after AA,
including Sex Addicts Anonymous, Overeaters Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous and
many more. But just because twelve-step recovery dominates the field doesn’t mean it is
a good fit for everyone.
Women in Alcoholics Anonymous
Women have had a presence in AA from the very beginning and as far back as
1945 AA literature acknowledged “attitudinal barriers” that women faced in the AA
recovery community (White, 1998, p. 158). While the wives of the founders, Lois Wilson
and Anne Smith as well as others, deserve credit for their support of the early AA
community, the women trying to get sober during that time deserve credit for fighting
addiction along with the sexist stereotypes of the fifties and sixties. Some men didn’t
believe women could be alcoholics and others didn’t believe women belonged in AA
since they would be a “distraction,” but they struggled on and their stories are told
alongside those of pioneering male AA’s. Florence R.’s story appeared in the first edition
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