Gendering Addiction: The Politics of Drug Treatment in a Neurochemical World

Gendering Addiction brings to bear the ideas of feminist sociology of knowledge, situated knowledge and ignorance, and standpoint epistemologies upon an injustice that has grave consequences for the human rights of drug-using women. Despite concerted efforts since the 1970s, most women who need drug treatment in the US and UK still do not receive it—because of ways treatment is delivered. This book examines ongoing attempts to meet a basic need that has not been met. Knowledge-making practices in drug research and treatment make it resistant to the gendered, classed and racialized power differentials that structure the lives of drug-using women. Without such knowledge, what we need to know about women's specific needs will continue to not to be known. A critical historical and sociological framework is crafted showing how feminist knowledge production is a promising route for overcoming the pervasive 'epistemology of ignorance' that prevails.