Drug use, prison, and the social construction of femininity

This article examines the impact and effects of social constructions of femininity as experienced by a group of drug-using women in prison. It challenges notions of illicit drug-taking as a “masculine” activity, which suggests that women who use drugs are unaffected by dominant images and aspirations to femininity. The research which underlies this study is based on qualitative interviews with women in prison who discuss their perceptions of appropriate images of womanhood, and examines their attempts to adhere to many of the ideological presentations that characterise femininity. The central role of the “body” as the focus for gendered identities is examined in relation to the “body” as the physical site of drug use, particularly drug-injecting. The broader context of penality is considered as it is aimed and directed at women within wider structures of social control, particularly those controls focused on the maintenance of gender identity.