# Was the Big Book written only for men? Is A.A. for women?

**In short:**
- The 1939 text mostly speaks of men, and it says so itself: "our book thus far has spoken of men" (p. 104), with few exceptions. In the next breath it says that what it has said "applies quite as much to women" (p. 104).
- From its first page the book describes the fellowship as men and women. The 1939 Foreword opens by describing the members as "more than one hundred men and women who have recovered" (p. xiii).
- A.A.'s membership statement covers everyone: the Long Form says membership "ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism" (p. 563).
- The early years were harder for women than the texts' wording suggests. A later history (1980) records that Dr. Bob and other early members were at first wary of women alcoholics, and that the first woman one old-timer remembered was turned away by the wives.

## What the 1939 text says

- **Men and women from the start.** The Foreword's "more than one hundred men and women" (p. xiii). Chapter 2 opens with the "thousands of men and women who were once just as hopeless as Bill" (p. 17) that the members know.
- **Written mostly about men.** The program chapters use "he" and "man" throughout. Chapter 8 begins by naming that: with few exceptions, "our book thus far has spoken of men" (p. 104). It goes on: "Our activities in behalf of women who drink are on the increase." and "There is every evidence that women regain their health as readily as men if they try our suggestions." (p. 104).
- **Women and the speed of the illness.** Chapter 3 says one doesn't have to drink long to be gravely affected, and "This is particularly true of women." (p. 33). "Potential female alcoholics often turn into the real thing and are gone beyond recall in a few years." (p. 33).
- **"To Wives."** Chapter 8 is written in the voice of members' wives, to the wives of drinking men (p. 104). Later histories say Bill W. wrote it himself; Lois said, "Bill wrote it, and I was mad." (*Pass It On*, 1984; also *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers*, 1980). A later-edition footnote explains: "Written in 1939, when there were few women in A.A., this chapter assumes that the alcoholic in the home is likely to be the husband." (p. 104). It adds that the suggestions can be adapted for someone living with a woman alcoholic.
- **The Foreword to the Fourth Edition (2001)** says that when the phrase "We are people who normally would not mix" (p. 17) was written in 1939, it described a fellowship "composed largely of men (and a few women)" with similar backgrounds (p. xxiii).

## The 1946 Long Form

Tradition Three: "Our membership ought to include all who suffer from alcoholism." (p. 563). A.A. "may refuse none who wish to recover" (p. 563). Nothing in it limits membership by sex.

## The numbers, as the later forewords report them

- 1955: "More than 15% of us are women." (p. xx).
- 1976: "Women now make up more than one-fourth of the membership; among newer members, the proportion is nearly one-third." (p. xxii).
- 2001: the stories added to the fourth edition represent a membership that has widened in "age, gender, race, and culture" (p. xxiii).

## Early women members (later histories, dated)

- *A.A. Comes of Age* (1957): in 1939 "a woman alcoholic known to so many of us as Marty" (*A.A. Comes of Age*, 1957) read the manuscript of the book at Blythewood Sanitarium, came to a meeting in Bill and Lois's living room at 182 Clinton Street, and carried the message back to a fellow patient. Her story, "Women Suffer Too," is in Part I of the fourth edition: "An early member, she spread the word among women in our pioneering period." (p. 200). She writes that she had been active in A.A. "since 1939" (p. 207).
- *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* (1980) is frank about the early years in Ohio. Women alcoholics were "the most unwelcome minority in A.A.'s olden days" (*Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers*, 1980). Dr. Bob was unsure how to help them and usually passed them to Anne Smith and other wives; the first woman one old-timer remembered was not allowed in the wives' homes; women "had to overcome a double standard" about drinking. The same book records that Anne and other wives kept working with them, and that attitudes changed.

## Today (2018)

*The A.A. Group* (P-16) says some A.A.s form specialized groups "for men, women, young people, doctors, LGBTQ+ and others," and that they may call themselves A.A. groups if their members are all alcoholics and "they open the door to all alcoholics who seek help" (P-16, 2018).

## What this means

The Big Book was written mostly in the language of men by a fellowship that was mostly men, and it says so. It was never written as a book for men only: its first page and its own correction on page 104 say it applies to women as well, and Tradition Three's membership statement includes all alcoholics.

## Read it yourself
- Foreword to the First Edition (pp. xiii–xiv): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordfirstedition.pdf
- Chapter 3, "More About Alcoholism" (pp. 30–43): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt3.pdf
- Chapter 8, "To Wives" (pp. 104–121): https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_chapt8.pdf
- Forewords to the Second, Third and Fourth Editions: https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordsecondedition.pdf · https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordthirdedition.pdf · https://www.aa.org/sites/default/files/2021-11/en_bigbook_forewordfourthedition.pdf
- Related: *What is the only requirement for A.A. membership?* · *My husband (or wife) drinks. What does the Big Book say to do?*

## Sources
| Source | Pages | First published |
|---|---|---|
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Foreword to the First Edition; Chapters 2, 3, 8 | xiii, 17, 33, 104 | 1939 (the p. 104 footnote is a later-edition addition) |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Appendix I, Tradition Three (Long Form) | 563 | 1946 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Forewords to the Second, Third and Fourth Editions | xx, xxii, xxiii | 1955, 1976, 2001 |
| *Alcoholics Anonymous*, Part I story "Women Suffer Too" | 200, 207 | in the fourth edition (2001); the writer an early member |
| *A.A. Comes of Age* | — | 1957 |
| *Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers* | — | 1980 |
| *Pass It On* | — | 1984 |
| P-16, *The A.A. Group* | 12 | 2018 |

Big Book page numbers are from the fourth edition (2001). Our copies of the history books have no printed page numbers, so they're cited by book and year.

*Recovery Starts is independent and not affiliated with Alcoholics Anonymous. Quotations are brief and cited; the Big Book,* A.A. Comes of Age, Dr. Bob and the Good Oldtimers, Pass It On *and P-16 are © A.A. World Services, Inc.*