Women and alcoholism: how a male-as-norm bias affects research, assessment, and treatment.

A comprehensive discussion of women's alcoholism must include an understanding of how the male-as-norm bias has affected alcoholism research, assessment, and treatment. This bias defines male alcoholism as the standard by which female alcoholism is judged. Although alcoholism and treatment needs are unique in many ways, those differences are often minimized, ignored, or defined as abnormal in a male model of alcoholism. This article summarizes how a male-as-norm bias has affected research on women's alcoholism and shaped perceptions of women's alcoholic behavior and their responses to treatment.