Gender and Female Recovery in Alcoholics Anonymous in the City of São Paulo-Brazil

Abstract

ABSTRACT Alcohol use disorder (AUD) is considered a public health problem and Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is considered effective, but it is predominantly frequented by men in Brazil. The purpose of this article is to understand how women conceive and experience their recovery in AA women’s meetings. For this, an ethnographic research was carried out with women from AA groups located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil, from March 2020 to February 2021. Data collection was carried out through participant observation in female AA meetings and semi-structured interviews with thirty women who participated in the meetings. The results showed that for women, AUD is a disease linked to gender asymmetries in Brazilian society, so that they do not feel comfortable discussing details of their intimacy in the presence of men, since in mixed meetings they were often target of sexist harassment and discrimination. Despite AA’s patriarchal culture, women help each other in a gender-only space where they find the mutual support necessary for their recovery. This research is considered to contribute to the understanding of how gender inequalities affect the treatment of women in AA and the importance of having only women’s meetings to strengthen them.