Have you heard about wine mums or seen videos on social media featuring women drinking at boozy brunches? Maybe you’ve heard the trope “mummy juice”?
Historically, men have drunk more than women, but in recent years, there has been an increase in women’s drinking.
In this episode of The Briefing, Sacha Barbour Gatt sits down with Maree Patsouras from La Trobe University to find out about the lives of Australian working mothers and the place alcohol has.
Maree says that while younger women drink less, the reasons middle-aged women drink more are complicated.
“Our research looked at specifically working mothers. So we wanted to see the women that were taking on dual roles, and we were able to see it was a very complex reason as to why they drank. They described, like I said before, over-committed, under-supported. They also described feeling like they were doing half a job as a parent and as a worker, and this also contributed to their alcohol use as well.”
She said despite the known impacts of drinking long term, alcohol was normalised for mums on social media and in advertising.
“When we spoke to our working mother participants, they described that alcohol was very normalided and it was very acceptable, not only around other working mothers, but around women in general. They would give us examples of targeted advertisements and even just general media depictions like in movies, where alcohol is presented to women as a solution to stress and problems,” she said.
“And specifically for mothers, it was presented as a solution to deal with child-related problems.”
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