Women Drinking Out in Britain Since the Early Twentieth Century

Given recent media coverage of women's drinking habits, it is surprising that a topic of such interest has not produced a comprehensive examination. This book provides not just a survey spanning a century of momentous change, but integrates diverse sources with concepts to offer a new understanding of the changing nature of women's drinking patterns. It challenges traditional assumptions and offers original interpretations about the diverse factors influencing women's consumption of alcohol, including advertising, moral panics, sexism, legislative initiatives, employment, age, ethnicity, technology, new drinking venues and marketing strategies.

What most influenced how women transformed their consumption of alcohol? What beverages did they drink? To what extent did women themselves act as agencies of change? These and other questions serve as the basis for analysing women's drinking patterns from a social and cultural perspective. Close attention is also paid to the image of drinking projected in advertising, the mass media and films.

David W. Gutzke is Professor of Modern British History at Missouri State University, USA.

Introduction
1. From the Boozer to the Improved Public House
2. Women, War and Drinking
3. Selling Women
4. Bikinis, Boots and Booze
5. The More Things Change, the More (Some) Things Remain the Same
6. Drinking Habits of their Own
7. Wooing Women
8. New Money, New Ideas, New Women
9. A Youth Subculture of Drinking
10. Yesterday's Reforms, Today's Bingeing
11. Folk Devils and Moral Panics: Youth and Women Across a Century of Censure
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index