Historical and Political Perspective: Women and Drug Use

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.