This article explores the role and experience of compensatory consumption in women's lives and conducts the research from a feminist perspective and asks, "What are women's lived experiences of compensatory consumption?" This is an under-researched area and yet there are numerous links with other more widely researched areas of consumer research, such as addictive consumption, self-gift and compensatory eating behavior. Compensatory behavior and consumption is a difficult area to research, however, and therefore reviews the subject in the light of existing literature, so that a research framework may be advanced to enable a greater understanding of the concept. It presents an overview of this research, together with preliminary findings based on phenomenological interviews. The article clearly demonstrates the significance of this area of study within consumer research and proposes an agenda for further research.