(no subject)
I've been thinking a lot lately about the gender dynamics in AA. I assume it applies more or less to all fellowships/addictions, but I'll stick to AA. I've got a few different topics that fall under 'gender dynamics in AA' so I'll start with one.
It's thought the ratio of male to female alcoholics in any given country is about 10%. So Australia, which sits at about 12%, has a female population of 1.2% This is all very fluid of course, but the 10% seems to stay more or less the same even as the percentage varies wildly from country to country.
What I can tell you anecdotally is that the % of women in the fellowship is more like 30%. I've spoken to a few people about this and they agree with my numbers. On the fact of it, that means women are 3x more likely to seek help in recovering from addiction then men. Yes, I know this is based on me doing a head count in a handful of meetings run by an organisation which is notoriously loose in its attendance records (intentionally so - good luck finding someone to breach the anonymity part, let alone getting them to do it) but I think I'm onto something. In Australia at least, women alcoholics are 3x more likely to seek help then men.
I have a few theories as to why. I think society looks a lot more harshly on women who are destructive drinkers then it does men. Don't get me wrong, I don't anything anyone whose drinking is at a point of being regularly abusive and regularly going on destructive binges is looked at approvingly, but I think there's a lot more tolerance towards men doing it than women. Someone along the lines of 'he works hard and needs to let off some steam and sometimes takes it a bit too far', perhaps? Whereas women simply aren't being ladylike and something has gone disastrously wrong and needs to be rectified before anyone who have anything to do with them.
The other thing is that I think the courts come down far more harshly on alcoholic mothers than fathers, or at least society looks at them far more harshly, like a mother who drinks destructively goes against the laws of nature but a father who does it is, I dunno, merely irresponsible?
I think in both situations, women are subjected to much harshly judgment for the same behaviour and as such, more likely to lose their families, the respect of the community etc, and thus more likely to seek help. This is all just theory, but I'm curious as to what others might think.
It's thought the ratio of male to female alcoholics in any given country is about 10%. So Australia, which sits at about 12%, has a female population of 1.2% This is all very fluid of course, but the 10% seems to stay more or less the same even as the percentage varies wildly from country to country.
What I can tell you anecdotally is that the % of women in the fellowship is more like 30%. I've spoken to a few people about this and they agree with my numbers. On the fact of it, that means women are 3x more likely to seek help in recovering from addiction then men. Yes, I know this is based on me doing a head count in a handful of meetings run by an organisation which is notoriously loose in its attendance records (intentionally so - good luck finding someone to breach the anonymity part, let alone getting them to do it) but I think I'm onto something. In Australia at least, women alcoholics are 3x more likely to seek help then men.
I have a few theories as to why. I think society looks a lot more harshly on women who are destructive drinkers then it does men. Don't get me wrong, I don't anything anyone whose drinking is at a point of being regularly abusive and regularly going on destructive binges is looked at approvingly, but I think there's a lot more tolerance towards men doing it than women. Someone along the lines of 'he works hard and needs to let off some steam and sometimes takes it a bit too far', perhaps? Whereas women simply aren't being ladylike and something has gone disastrously wrong and needs to be rectified before anyone who have anything to do with them.
The other thing is that I think the courts come down far more harshly on alcoholic mothers than fathers, or at least society looks at them far more harshly, like a mother who drinks destructively goes against the laws of nature but a father who does it is, I dunno, merely irresponsible?
I think in both situations, women are subjected to much harshly judgment for the same behaviour and as such, more likely to lose their families, the respect of the community etc, and thus more likely to seek help. This is all just theory, but I'm curious as to what others might think.