Keeping out of trouble: Female crack cocaine dealers in England

This paper offers a rare insight into women’s experiences dealing crack cocaine. Drawing on
interviews with eight women, this research finds that, although the retail-level crack trade is male
dominated, it is not simply a man’s world. This paper examines the strategies that successful
female dealers employed, demonstrating that women reflexively took their gender into account
to made cognizant choices about what, when and how to deal. Dealing strategies were a response
not solely to the gendered nature of the drug market but also to women’s gendered social
positions, relationships and identities. Performing respectable femininity was a key strategy for
keeping dealing hidden and keeping out of trouble. This paper is underpinned by the concept of
‘doing gender’.