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This qualitative analysis looks at women across a continuum of sobriety and affiliation with Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The sample frame consists of 60 women's stories as submitted to the Grapevine: The International Journal of Alcoholics Anonymous and explores older women's recovery experiences within the context of AA. An intersectional interpretive lens is offered in order to look at both gender and age as they relate to recovery from alcohol use disorder (AUD). Findings suggest a comparative difference not only among older women as a group seeking recovery but between those who have late-onset AUD, those who sought help in middle-age, and those women with long-term sobriety affiliated with AA for 20 or more years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This qualitative study analyzes gender role ideology and how it shapes the process of addiction and pathways to recovery for women in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). More than 600 women's stories submitted to The Grapevine: The International Journal of Alcoholics Anonymous between the late 1940s and through the 1980s provides the sample from which dominant themes are extrapolated. The sick role as conceptualized by Talcott Parsons in the 1950s is tested, and it is found that sex roles (now discussed as gender roles) do influence and shape women's experiences as alcoholics and their pathways to recovery. The double standard is identified early on whereas more public displays of deviance are not widely discussed until the 1980s. In between, the labeling of women with "bad nerves," the overuse of sedatives, and the struggle to accept the disease model of alcoholism are all discussed in these women's stories. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Group relations conferences and 12-Step recovery thrive on the participants working in groups. This article is an inquiry into the integration of these traditions, in the Loyola Group Relations Conference, January 14–16, 2011. This conference recruited staff and members from the recovery community. 12-Step meetings were integrated into the conference design. The authors discuss the similarities and differences of the two models and examine the learning of conference staff and members. The authors conclude that Group Relations Conferences focusing on leadership, authority, and recovery from addiction can bring important group relations learning to the recovery community and vice versa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]