[From article]
But only a 57-year-old career woman like myself can truly understand why educated, successful women of a certain age drink so much. I know a lot of them. Just as I know many happy career mums who let their jobs take a back seat while nurturing their kids and supporting their husbands — and they rarely drink to excess.
If the OECD report had done a bit more research, it would actually have found there’s a direct link between middle-class alcoholism among women and being single or divorced.
It’s not professional pressure that stiffens all these women’s wrists as they pull out that cork when they get home at night — it’s loneliness. That’s the real dark side of equality.
[. . .]
And if any of us needed a lesson in what feminism brings you, look to Germaine Greer, author of The Female Eunuch and one of the most strident female voices of the 20th century — aged 76 and living alone.
[. . .]
So, why is drink so important to this clever, lucky group of us?
There’s another unfeminist theory suggesting that once women move into traditionally male preserves and exercise authority, we adopt men’s habits.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3080613/As-soaring-alcohol-abuse-educated-women-branded-dark-equality-middle-class-women-drink-much.htmlAnd if any of us needed a lesson in what feminism brings you, look to Germaine Greer, author of The Female Eunuch and one of the most strident female voices of the 20th century — aged 76 and living alone.
[. . .]
So, why is drink so important to this clever, lucky group of us?
There’s another unfeminist theory suggesting that once women move into traditionally male preserves and exercise authority, we adopt men’s habits.
[. . .]
Alcohol is warming, cheering and temporarily gives you courage. A first drink fogs the brain, wobbles the perceptions, relaxes the limbs, pushes harsh thoughts down. Its spreading vapour seems to fill a dark hole of uncertainty and shame inside you. And uncertainty and shame are a curse of female nature.
Men feel these things, too, but when a chap fails at a task, gets a hard time from his boss, feels patronised or muffs a promotion interview, he may find it easier to mutter: ‘Bastards!’ He can assume the attitude of a noble warrior-beast surrounded by enemies and lash out verbally (ideally not physically, Clarkson . . .).
Women, on the other hand, like to keep the peace and so are fatally prone to internalise humiliation.
Alcohol is warming, cheering and temporarily gives you courage. A first drink fogs the brain, wobbles the perceptions, relaxes the limbs, pushes harsh thoughts down. Its spreading vapour seems to fill a dark hole of uncertainty and shame inside you. And uncertainty and shame are a curse of female nature.
Men feel these things, too, but when a chap fails at a task, gets a hard time from his boss, feels patronised or muffs a promotion interview, he may find it easier to mutter: ‘Bastards!’ He can assume the attitude of a noble warrior-beast surrounded by enemies and lash out verbally (ideally not physically, Clarkson . . .).
Women, on the other hand, like to keep the peace and so are fatally prone to internalise humiliation.
As soaring alcohol abuse by educated women is branded 'the dark side of equality'... Why DO middle class women drink so much?
Report reveals professional women are drinking to dangerous levels
But, say two writers, it's not career pressures driving women to wine
Amanda Platell says it's loneliness making women pop the cork
Libby Purves claims alcohol helps to wash away plaguing self-doubt
By AMANDA PLATELL and LIBBY PURVES FOR THE DAILY MAIL
PUBLISHED: 17:49 EST, 13 May 2015 | UPDATED: 18:05 EST, 13 May 2015
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