Twelve -step recovery and feminism: A study of empowerment among women in Alcoholics Anonymous

This dissertation examines how alcoholic women empower themselves through the twelve-step program of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). A combination of qualitative and quantitative data demonstrates that as members of AA the 167 women in this research sample stopped drinking, improved their lives and fundamentally bettered themselves. Feminist phenomenology provides the theoretical framework for interpretation, and empirical data from survey methodology details their experiences. The demographic profile and their problems as alcoholics are presented from a gender-sensitive perspective. Their level of involvement both in AA and in women-only meetings is measured. Why they attend women-only meetings and how they have actively shaped their recovery environment in a gendered fashion are examined. This study establishes that most of these women have completed the Twelve Steps of AA, "working" them in a manner that reflects gender differences. Lastly, these women utilize many different supports to accentuate and complement AA, collectively and personally empowering themselves through the process of recovery in AA. However, does this form of empowerment come at the expense of feminist empowerment? AA has a 2-1 ratio of men to women and spiritual principles that require submission of one's will to a Higher Power (God). Despite AA's strongly male culture, these women hold strong gender-role attitudes, maintain feminist beliefs, and actively participate in feminist activities. They have also developed a personal understanding of God that is both comfortable for them and consistent with their feminist orientations. Finally, an empirical measure of personal empowerment, self-esteem, is analyzed, and qualitative data describe self-esteem and other indicators of personal empowerment. Quantitatively speaking, the single most significant association is between having completed the Twelve Steps of AA and high self-esteem. Qualitatively, data from these women's narratives express personal empowerment as a process that occurs over time in AA. Initially, they resist and overcome their alcoholism and learn that they can change their lives one-day-at-a-time. As they grow in recovery, they not only gain the "power to" confront their alcoholism, but they also develop a "power from within" that allows them to continue on the path of recovery that is ongoing and never ending.