ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that explanations for the prominence bestowed on women's drinking in various epochs are to be found in contemporary political and social circumstances and in ideas concerning gender and women's position in society, rather than in any 'neutral' or 'scientific' evidence of women's misuse of alcohol. It focuses on the factors which resulted in the emergence of women as a risk group in modern Britain, and more specifically in England. In the search for explanations and solutions, women became the focal point for many of the proposed measures to counteract the increasing 'degeneracy of the race'. Young girls were alleged to be indulging in drinking and smoking and there was a continuing outcry over the employment of young women as barmaids and the subsequent decline of many into alcoholism. Women professionals were no exception in laying responsibility for racial degeneration on women.
