I Know What I´m Doing: Experiences of Women who Use Methamphetamine – Frišaufová Magda (2016)

Women as drug users have been under the scrutiny of sociologists for several decades. Researchers have published much about the specificity of their situation, especially in relation to gender inequality. They have written about the more pronounced stigmatization of women or the more difficult access to treatment and social services. Conversely, little attention has been paid to the strategies through which female drug users try to resist their situation, or the difficulties they face in everyday life. It is precisely this unusual perspective that the author of the book "I Know What I'm Doing" offers. Through narrative analysis of repeated in-depth interviews and focus groups with seven women who have experience with long-term use of methamphetamine, she examines not only the problems women face but also the agency they use to regain control over their lives and assert their needs and interests in the surrounding world.