Abstract:
This article briefly describes the context of women’s drinking and alcohol policy in Aotearoa/New Zealand and the methodology of interviewing service providers about the impacts of women’s alcohol consumption. It then analyses the views of 40 health and social welfare professionals about their perceptions of alcohol-related harms to women. It describes three spiralling factors that these workers perceived as both causing and resulting from women’s drinking and the impacts on their staff and sectors of women’s alcohol-related trauma. The study concludes that gender analysis is essential in addiction research and that qualitative research with experienced service providers may be a useful element in evaluating changes in social policy.
