Gender theorists have long posited that the social construction of gender encourages women to embody specific ideals of femininity. Any circumstance or situation, then, that threatens a woman’s ability or capacity to fulfill these ideals is regarded as abnormal and often receives large amount of interest. This thesis provides a critical analysis of the gendered practices used in conjunction with the ideas, messages, and advice given to women with alcohol dependence. By doing a qualitative content analysis, I explored how the concepts of emphasized femininity are presented in self-help literatureforalcohol dependent women. My findings show that gendered ideas about alcoholic recovery are mainly constructed through white, heterosexual, middle-class lenses that perpetuate feminine subordination.