Women’s drug use and academic research

Although the sociology of drugs is a dynamic area of research, one question remains unexplored: the use of drugs by women. The objective of this article is, there-fore, to analyse the formation of this research area and to challenge its principal academic axioms in the light of a review of the current state of knowledge. The pre-dominant approaches and themes that have been identified in this review paper are comparative analysis as well as constructions of literary figures such as “drug addict mothers” or “women victims”. In the last part, the article deals with the contribution of feminist studies on the subject. In conclusion, it is possible to discern a new theme, which is understudied, and which could constitute the object of research programme, that is the institutional careers of these women.