Women's Involvement in Alcohol Consumption as an Element of Asocial Adaptation at the Present Stage

Abstract

The aim of the work is to consider the features of alcoholic behavior of a modern woman. The situation with the involvement of various groups of women in alcohol consumption is analyzed on the basis of quantitative and qualitative long – term studies conducted by the team of Sector of Sociology of Deviant Behavior of ISRAS – FCTAS RAS at the end of the 20th century, at the turn of the century – in the “zero” years and in modern times. The results of comparative studies conducted by the authors, allowed us to reveal and identify the mechanism of cause-and-effect relationships that led to new models of women’s alcohol behavior. These new patterns of alcohol behavior should be considered as one of the forms of strategic adaptation to changing living conditions. The revealed patterns indicate a significant influence of gender and age on the frequency, intensity and type of alcohol consumption. These new patterns of alcohol behavior represent a form of strategic adaptation to changed living conditions. In this sense, alcohol acts as a universal and most accessible means, satisfying, on the one hand, the need for state of intoxication, for changing one’s state of consciousness, fixed in modern society, and on the other hand, it is a fashionable and exemplary standard of behavior, a socio-cultural norm or ritual. This attitude allows and justifies the “quiet” alcoholization of women managers, housewives, drunkenness in the workplace, holidays in the team, “relaxation” on the way home, including driving, or in the evening at home, after work. In other words, alcohol in moderate doses takes its place in labor, business, leisure, and communication activities of modern women.

Keywords

• alcoholization
• gender
• female alcohol behavior
• youth
• motives for alcohol consumption
• the first test of alcohol
• characterological features
• stigmatization