Female alcoholism problems in Lesotho.

This paper gives an overview of alcohol and alcohol-related problems facing women in Lesotho. As in many other developing countries, the cultural position of women in Lesotho facilitates a vicious circle in which women are at one time brewers of alcohol, then sellers, then become excessive consumers due to the problems created by their drinking husbands. Married women encounter social censure if they drink, and termination of their marriages if they abuse alcohol. Culturally women are regarded as minors and depend on their husbands for economic survival, so that alcohol abuse can cause great hardship. Due to a lack of trained and specialized medical staff, women's particular and multi-faceted treatment needs are largely unmet and no research is done on problems of female alcoholism.