A new study seems to think so.

European researchers have concluded that educated women of a professional echelon are far likelier to suffer from alcoholism or binge drinking than those who are undereducated or work at McDonald’s.  I’d think the opposite, frankly.

The study was completed by the University of Lancaster and based their assumptions on alcoholic consumption by female professionals, females of a higher income bracket and females in middle age.  All results showed that female alcohol intake in these particular groups were on the rise.

Researchers can only surmise that the reason for escalation in alcohol consumption is due in part to advertising, which seems aimed at these particular groups of women and the fact that law enforcement is cracking down on drinking laws and a lot of individuals are leery of traveling pub to pub while drinking.   A lot of theorists also state that it has much to do with the general decline of alcohol prices.

I personally think it’s a regional and cultural issue rather than an trending alcoholism issue.  Over-consumption of alcohol in the United States has been demonized for years; the US has probably more admitted recovering addicts than anywhere else in the world. However, in European cultures and homes, it’s hardly anything to bat an eye at for an adult (or even supervised adolescent) to knock back one, two or three drinks in a domestic setting.  I think it has nothing to do with the goings-on of particular groups of individuals and all to do with the fact that there are addictive personalities and there are not. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not downplaying the severity of an addiction.  I’m merely pontificating that making broad generalizations similar to the ones that researchers are making in the crazy upswing in women’s drinking habits could possibly be a little over-embellished for dramatic’s sake.

Maybe I’m wrong.  Maybe I should just eat it and state that I’ve been lucky not to have suffered an addiction to alcohol or other drug-dependency and leave it at that.

Either way, I think that surmising these groups of women are more apt to overindulge in the drink is a dangerous assumption to make — it could really end up backfiring.

3 Responses to “High-Powered Career Women At Higher Risk of Becoming Alcoholics?”

1. jeck says:

   December 21, 2009 at 2:39 pm

   could it be the really intense culture of binge-drinking among women at institutions of higher learning? I don’t have any science to prove that phenomenon, but I lived it…

   Reply
2. Rhonda says:

   December 21, 2009 at 4:09 pm

   It doesn’t surprise me really. I imagine the traits that make someone prone to addiction are quite similar to the traits that make people driven to succeed. People who are driven and successful are also unlikely to acknowledge that they have a problem they can’t control so the addiction can progress further until they admit they have an issue.

   Reply
3. Inesita says:

   December 28, 2009 at 12:18 pm

   Well, they found the same results in Denmark (but here they include men, so basically highly educated people drink, on average, much more then people with low education)…and here the government is always trying to reduce drinking. The country has one of the highest avarages of alcohol intake in Europe….

   Oh, and it doesn’t surprise me at all.

   Reply