Quit Like a Woman: The Radical Choice to Not Drink in a Culture Obsessed with Alcohol

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of substance use, addiction, and mental illness.

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) is a well-known recovery program that originated in the United States. The goal of AA members is to become and remain sober. Most AA members attend regular meetings in which they share their experiences with alcohol and sobriety. AA was founded by Americans Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith in 1939 and is now active in 180 countries, with about 2 million members across the US and Canada. The AA Recovery program encourages attendees to follow the “Twelve Steps,” which begin with, “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable” and carry through to the final step, “Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these Steps, we tried to carry this message to alcoholics, and to practice these principles in all our affairs” (“The Twelve Steps.” Alcoholics Anonymous).

In Quit Like a Woman, Whitaker is critical of the AA approach to recovery. In her opinion, the Twelve Steps are rigid, negative, and overly religious. By focusing on humility and confessing to God and others, Whitaker believes that these steps can foster feelings of shame and harm recovering addicts’ self-confidence.