RT Article
T1 “The times have changed, the dope has changed”: Women's cooking roles and gender performances in shake methamphetamine markets
JF Criminology
VO 57
IS 2
SP 268
OP 288
A1 Deitzer, Jessica R.
A1 Leban, Lindsay
A1 Copes, Heith 1970-
LA English
YR 2019
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1668081369
AB Drug markets are typically portrayed as male dominated, with men occupying the higher positions and women fulfilling the lower positions. Yet, the results of recent work highlight how women's participation and experiences in drug economies varies by the structure and organization of the specific market. We focus on the shake‐and‐bake (“shake”) methamphetamine (meth) market, which seems to have emerged mainly in response to legal attempts to curtail methamphetamine production. We explore how women adapt to structural changes and how they perform gender to navigate a market in which the focus is on personal consumption instead of on monetary gain. By relying on semistructured interviews with 40 women who cooked meth, we identify the gendered strategies they adopt and how these coincide with their position in the drug market. Cooking roles took three forms (partner, lead, and team), and each role was characterized by distinct patterns of gender performance and autonomy (emphasized femininity, matriarchal control, and gender neutral). We show that certain market conditions allow for increased participation among women in meth manufacturing. Yet, even within favorable conditions, variability remains in women's positions and gender performances. The findings highlight the role of organizational and legal context in shaping both the roles women adopt in drug markets and the ways they perform gender.
K1 Doing gender
K1 Drug markets
K1 Methamphetamine
K1 Qualitative methods
K1 Drogenküche
K1 Frauen
K1 Rolle
K1 Drogenhandel
DO 10.1111/1745-9125.12200