Women and Drinking

There was a time when drinking alcohol was a punishable offense for women, but the flappers of the 1920's helped put a stop to that. The unladylike behavior of barroom drinking has come a long way since Hank Williams sang about the wiles of honky tonk women. Reruns of Sex and the City reinforce the idea that dishing about your lovelife while downing a cosmopolitan in a swanky bar is a rite of bonding for high-flying ladies.

New research reveals that more women are drinking, and drinking more. While men are cutting back, women’s dependency on alcohol is going up. Some believe that drinking like the boys in the office is a path to promotions; others say that feminism means one can choose to be out of control.

Alex Morris is contributing editor at New York magazine. Her recent article "Gender Bender," about the rise in female drinking has touched a nerve, and she’s here to tell us about it. We're also joined by Dr. Richard Grucza, an epidemiologist at Washington University School of Medicine.

(Photo by Logan Antill)