‘I have a healthy relationship with alcohol’: Australian midlife women, alcohol consumption and social class

Abstract

Summary Alcohol consumption by Australian women during midlife has been increasing. Health promotion efforts to reduce alcohol consumption in order to reduce alcohol-related disease risk compete with the social contexts and value of alcohol in women’s lives. This paper draws on 50 qualitative interviews with midlife women (45–64 years of age) from different social classes living in South Australia in order to gain an understanding of how and why women might justify their relationships with alcohol. Social class shaped and characterized the different types of relationships with alcohol available to women, structuring their logic for consuming alcohol and their ability to consider reducing (or ‘breaking up with’) alcohol. We identified more agentic relationships with alcohol in the narratives of affluent women. We identified a tendency for less control over alcohol-related decisions in the narratives of women with less privileged life chances, suggesting greater challenges in changing drinking patterns. If classed differences are not attended to in health promotion efforts, this might mitigate the effectiveness of alcohol risk messaging to women.

Developing a Women's Thought Collective methodology for health research: The roles and responsibilities of researchers in the reflexive co‐production of knowledge

“…Two Collectives were assembled; one with midlife women from South Australia and another with midlife women nationally. The state-based Collective was where the researcher was located and also where the parallel study had run about the reasons as to why women in midlife drink 20,52,84 which could be explored in relation to broader structures, the focus of this study. The national Collective was assembled to help elucidate differences between states and create a further reflection on the experiences and perspectives of women living in different locations.…”

“…The value of this open‐ended approach was identified as an innovative way of centring the researchers' growth and reflection (in contrast to lay participants) during Kristen Foley's doctoral research exploring the commercial determinants of alcohol consumption in the context of rising consumption levels for Australian women aged 45–64 and associated increases to population breast cancer risk 51 . A linked study was already running within the public health department in which Kristen's PhD would be located, to explore how social class shapes alcohol consumption for women in midlife using interview methods 52 . To complement these insights, she designed and received funding for a companion study to explore the social context of alcohol consumption and experiences of marketing to women to increase profit margins and market share.…”

Sober Curiosity: A Qualitative Study Exploring Women’s Preparedness to Reduce Alcohol by Social Class

“…To explore the notion of sober curiosity as it relates to class, we sampled for women with access to different levels and compositions of several forms of capital—economic but also social and cultural resources per Bourdieu’s sociological model of class [ 47 ]. To measure women’s social class positionings, we operationalised a novel sociological approach recently validated in the UK [ 48 ] and Australia [ 49 ] and our previous study [ 13 , 14 ]). This approach extends beyond simple economic, employment, and educational markers and has contemporary relevance to the nuances of social class divisions and consumer behaviour that extend to the social and cultural dimensions that shape life chances and alcohol-related outcomes.…”

“…The sober curious movement and thus, sober curiosity, does not obscure or ignore women’s reasons for consuming alcohol, rather it encourages reflection on those reasons. In our previous work we have explored how alcohol functions as a resource in women’s lives and have identified that these ‘uses’ of alcohol ‘compete with’ public health risk messaging [ 14 ]. Research on sober curiosity is relatively new.…”

“…In the 2020s, women are drinking more alcohol than previous generations of women in this stage of life, and more than any other age group currently, and the reasons for this lie in research which indicates consumption provides some women with a form of stress-relief [ 7 ] and self-care [ 8 , 9 , 10 ] that is socially acceptable [ 11 , 12 ] and can function as a tool to promote wellness, sometimes within a limited range of resources; and women’s options diminish as they experience more social disadvantage [ 13 ]. Australian women’s reasons for alcohol consumption are also differentiated on the basis of social class [ 13 , 14 , 15 ]. Of particular relevance to this study is that affluent women have more agentic ‘relationships’ with alcohol, whereas there is a tendency for less control over alcohol-related decisions for women living with less privilege.…”