Feminists Didn’t Drive Women to Alcohol

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Iain of KS 6:38PM May 21, 2009

There is a word, "research." It means to look up and comprehend what you write about. You should consider using this "research," on occasion when you write a column. It makes you seem less, less, ignorant.

Collin Dow of OR 3:13PM December 11, 2008

It is true that women no longer have the social imperative to avoid alcohol, or drugs--would disagree about the drive to legal alternatives, especially in the college age group. Hence that does mean that women are more likely to use alcohol and hence some who would not have become addicted, now do. But to say that feminism is the cause of that is to ignore completely the underlying causes of addiction--period. It is the removal of social injunction, in some ways coupled with the lack of real progress in women's opportunities that leads to alcoholism.Further, part of it is a function of being more obvious--women in the past would drink in secret. And the use of alcohol socially in, at least, upper class families in the fifties was widespread--during the suppression of feminism following WWII.
Bonnie, you are right about the lack of causation, yet, it is still a concern from a public health standpoint. Yet, the real question is not how to prevent alcoholism--it is how to prevent the underlying psychological problems as noted above.

MontanaMountainWoman of MT 2:13AM December 11, 2008

Drinking is not about feminism. It is about getting high (12-17), getting really drunk along with the boys (18-24), postponing reality (25-34), drowning sorrows about reality (35-54) and re-living the past (55 and up.)

of 3:59PM December 10, 2008

Bonnie - your probably right that this isnt the biggest contributing factor, but I think there is some truth in this. However, maybe not in the way the author implies.
From my experience here in the south, professional women in the 40 to 60 age group do seem to drink more, smoke more, and swear more than their younger colleages (including my mother). I havent seem any hard reasearch on the subject, but my impression is that women in that demographic were competing in a male dominated workforce, and had to demonstrate that they could do everything the boys could. That said, I would be more inclined to blame the rise in drinking on the likes of Lidsay Lohan and her contemporaries than a trickling down of this sort of "beat the boys' at their own game" feminism.

Stuart of AR 3:02PM December 10, 2008