Earlier this week, the Cumbria Alcohol and Drug Advisory Service (CADAS) announced their concern about rising levels of binge-drinking amongst young people. Despite the fact that more men than women are admitted to hospital with drinking-related liver disease, CADAS expressed particular concern about young women drinking heavily. And CADAS is not alone.
Last month, two separate reports on binge-drinking were published by researchers on opposite sides of the world. Both focused on the drinking behaviour of women despite admitting that, statistically, it is more of a problem among men.
Dr Gavin Palk, a psychologist at Australia's Queensland University of Technology, conducted a survey which revealed that 19% of young women have participated in verbal or physical aggression while drinking. This is comparable with the figure for men, which stands at 26%. Dr Palk suggests that a greater number of bars and clubs are, "providing a venue for ladette-style behaviour... There is a rise in young females who equate alcohol and excessive alcohol with fun." He notes that, "men have traditionally done [this] for 100-odd years." It should be no surprise to Dr Palk, then, that women might also find drinking fun.
Researchers at Liverpool John Moores university also noted roughly comparable statistics for incidences of drunken violence among males and females and were concerned that, "drinking can place girls in situations where they are too drunk to properly consider whether they wish to have sex or take the appropriate precautions to prevent pregnancy and sexually-transmitted infections." Interestingly, they did not express a similar concern that "drinking might place boys in situations where they were too drunk to properly consider whether they wish to have sex or take the appropriate precautions to prevent sexually transmitted infections."
We find this attitude repeated in the media. Last month, for example, the Daily Mail wrote that, "British ladettes match men in binge-drinking" and that "British women have topped a European league of ladette drinking shame" - as if drinking is something women, but not men, should be ashamed of. In an article reporting the research at Liverpool John Moores, it wrote that "Binge-drinking is creating a generation of violent and promiscuous teenage girls". Presumably if the headline had read "Binge-drinking is creating a generation of violent and promiscuous teenage boys" readers would have been confused as to why the fact that teenage boys are promiscuous is worth reporting.
I do not mean to downplay the vast social and health problems related to binge-drinking or to suggest that we should be encouraging young girls (and boys) to behave like this. But concern about drinking does seem to be disproportionately directed towards women. In fact, there is a long history of this in the UK.
Virginia Berridge, Rachel Herring and Betsy Thom noted in a public health report several years ago that heavy drinking has been a feature of British culture throughout history. In the 12th century, William of Malmesbury wrote of the English: "Drinking is a universal practice, in which occupation they passed entire nights as well as days..." 17th century texts suggest that it was perfectly acceptable for labourers to alleviate themselves after a hard day's work by drinking themselves senseless and, equally, nobody would bat an eyelid if the local squire was passed out under the table by the end of an evening. At some point, however, the reaction of both society and the government to this kind of behaviour changed.
At the end of the 17th century, the government reduced taxes on spirits in an attempt to stimulate the industry. Spirits, particularly gin, rapidly rose in popularity and the effect of this was that women suddenly started drinking alongside men. Within just a few decades, the public was up in arms about the drastic problem of drinking that was endemic within British society. The government initiated a campaign to do something about this 'new' drinking culture, climaxing in 1751 with the publication of Hogarth's famous etchings, Gin Lane and Beer Street. Gin Lane shows a drunken and half-naked woman accidentally dropping her screaming child over the edge of a staircase: Women were seen as failing in their maternal duties and their behaviour was considered unseemly, unfeminine and undignified. High levels of infant mortality, which had been around for years before the gin epidemic and probably owed more to unsanitary conditions and poor diet, were attributed to gin consumption.
Similarly, in the 19th century, anti-binge-drinking campaigns were focused around the problem of mothers drinking and the effect of alcohol on the unborn child. By the 1920s, the concern was for 'modern' girls who were imitating men by becoming too independent and shunning domestic duties for social drinking. At every stage since concern about binge-drinking first became an issue, it is the role of female drinkers that has attracted attention.
Moving into the 21st century, there has been a huge amount of discussion about the problem of rising drinking rates amongst women and how it might be explained, despite the fact that women still don't drink as much as men. Moira Plant, the UK's leading expert on women and alcohol, explained in The Observer: "Historically, women have been the informal social controllers of men's drinking, but women now, especially young women, are no longer playing that role."
As a result, women who drink are seen as disgracing themselves, while boys "are just being boys". This is problematic largely because it reflects a more pervasive double-standard. Clearly drinking does not fit into the traditional concept of the 'feminine'. Women are still supposed to be graceful and well-behaved. The same, apparently, is not expected of men.