This Vol in the Clarendon Studies in Criminology series (Roger Hood, series editor) analyzes the relation of gender, race, & class, drawing on an ethnographic study of the illegal drug market in Bushwick, a neighbohood in New York City, derived from individual contact with 211 women drug users. Current theory tends to describe such women in terms of either passivity & submissiveness or autonomy & volition. This dualism is contradicted in a description of the networks of women drug users in Bushwick. Women-centered networks in the community serve as a primary resource of women drug users for income generation, drug consumption, & personal safety, because they are isolated from conventional sources of economic & social support & peripheral to the male-dominated core networks of drug-using populations. However, these networks are riven by racial divisions between African American, Latina, & European American women. Further, while it is true that new opportunities in the drug market have emerged with the advent of the crack cocaine market & the erosion of male dominance of the drug economy, these opportunities are gender coded & unlikely to be given to women. Some women gained entrance into the dominant drug market through boyfriends & husbands, but most are excluded from participation. Sexwork is the only income-generating activity consistently available to women drug users in this community. It is concluded that the division of labor in the street-level drug economy & broader systems of social stratification work together to produce & maintain the status of women drug users in this community. A Preface accompanies 8 Chpts. 1 Appendix, 452 References. D. M. Smith