New York Magazine reports a recent study shows alcohol consumption is up — way, way up — in women. Dr. Richard Grucza, an epidemiologist and professor at Washington University School of Medicine, compared studies conducted in 1991 to 1992 and in 2001 to 2002 to see how same-age groups responded to questions about alcohol consumption a decade later. He discovered that though “the American attraction to alcohol is growing more potent,” the increase in alcohol consumption is primarily in women, and among them there’s an increase in dependence, too. Grucza explains this increase in alcohol consumption began around the middle of the last century, coinciding with Second Wave feminism. “As women ‘immigrated’ into the culture that was once unique to men,” says Grucza, “they picked up a lot of the same mores and attitudes and behaviors and ideas about what is socially acceptable that men had previously held.” And the place where women are picking up these attitudes and behaviors the most? College. Keep reading »
