Kvinnorna, spriten och socialpolitiken : En studie kring nykterhetsnämndernas uppfattning och bedömning av kvinnors alkoholmissbruk under 1930-talet

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this essay has been to, with a gender perspective, study the way through which the Swedish sobriety committees handled cases of women abusing alcohol during the 1930s. Due to alcohol abuse being historically perceived as a male concern the study aims to enlighten the fact that women, even though it was highly unusual, also abused alcohol and that their abuse was perceived differently due to diverse normative gender perceptions. Previous research has shown that Swedish social policy regarding alcohol abuse at the time, due to these normative perceptions of gender, were aimed specifically at working class men and to a large degree viewed women as a non-abusive party. By analysing data from the protocols of the sobriety committees’ archives in two Swedish cities I have compiled a list of seven individual cases of varying extent that have been matters for the sobriety committees in Borås and Kalmar. The study has been able to outline how normative perceptions of gender are applied in the source material and that the individual women in many of the occurring cases have been judged in accordance with these perceptions. This in turn has meant that alcohol abusing women have been deemed more deviating from their respective gender norms than their male counterparts.