Study Says Women Are Drinking More Than Men Now, Especially In College

SteveHolt9 years ago

Women are drinking a little more now, and men are drinking a little less, especially college-aged individuals, according to a study from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

The standard clear-cut drinking differences are diminishing, according to researchers. No longer are men the major drunkards of the world. It appears the women have caught up.

From NBC News:

“Males still consume more alcohol, but the differences between men and women are diminishing,” said Aaron White of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), who looked at data from 2002 to 2012 for the study.

Over that time, the percentage of women who had an alcoholic drink in the past 30 days went from 45 percent to 48 percent, while the percentage of men went from 57.4 percent to 56 percent.

And women consumed alcohol slightly more days a month — from 6.8 days to 7.3 days on average, while men drank on just slightly fewer days, down from 9.9 days to 9.5 days.

The same number of college kids admitted to binge drinking. But more women and fewer men said they down five or more drinks in a row, the researchers found.

Is this progress? I’m not really sure what to think about this one, but I am hardly surprised. College women have been going hard ever since I first stepped foot on a college campus in 2010. It was clear that women were far more determined to get absolutely shit-housed than their male counterparts. Hell, my girlfriend can drink me under the table. I have no problem with that.

Women typically find a way to out-do men in pretty much every category. To think drinking would be any different would just be naive. Sure, men love a beer or two after work, but women down like three glasses of wine every single day. For them to get seriously drunk, it’ll take a lot more than that. Chalk this one up to evolution.

As an aspiring stay-at-home father, I can’t complain about any of these “women-taking-over men” statistics. In fact, I find them encouraging. As the established gender role practices continue to fall like dominoes, it seems more and more likely that I’ll be living the rest of my life raising my kids, watching my soaps, and doing our laundry until the end of time. And that is exactly what I want..

[via NBC News]

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