An interesting topic of drug use in the 1800s is women using drugs, especially laudanum and morphine. These women were typically high-society types who used laudanum and morphine as a cure for their boredom. As well as the high-society types, many working class women such as seamstresses used opiates to push themselves through the long hours their jobs sometimes demanded. In one 1880 study cited in Women and Addiction in the United States – 1850 to 1920, it was found that 72% of opium users in Chicago were women. This was mostly due to the fact that doctors prescribed opiates almost limitlessly, especially to women who were seen as being less capable of managing pain.