This week’s blog comes from SI’s new International Procedural Consultant, Carwen Wynne Howells, from the UK.

Let’s face it, Soroptimists are a fairly sociable bunch who
are not adverse to the odd glass or two of red or white ‘tea’ (i.e wine) and, whilst we may kid ourselves
that we have a responsible attitude to drinking alcohol, the increasing
consumption of alcohol by women, particularly young women, is becoming a source
of concern worldwide.

I am  a member of the
Haverfordwest and District Club. Haverfordwest is the county town of
Pembrokeshire, a stunningly beautiful county on the edge of south west Wales.
My  Club is part of the Region of Wales
South. For a number of years the Clubs within the Region have linked together
to carry out  joint project work, our
projects have been many and varied but I think we are about to take on one of
our biggest challenges. We have decided to do something about alcohol
consumption amongst young people, particularly young women, and the issue of
‘binge drinking’ .

In this case it’s not AA but AAA –  Awareness, Advocacy and Action.

Before even attempting to tackle the issue we needed to
raise our own awareness of the issues and how 
it affected our own locality. We discovered that we were very fortunate in
Pembrokeshire  to have a Specialist Under
18’s Drink and Drugs Service (SUDDS)  who
were well placed to update us on the whole issue of alcohol consumption and
it’s impact.

Let me share with you some of the information we have
gleaned:

Whether it’s teenage girls binge drinking illicitly, women in their 20s and 30s drinking as part of
their busy social life and careers, or older women drinking more at home, alcohol has become a greater part of women’s lives over the
past half a century.

There are many reasons for this

1. Since the 1960s,the number of women working has
   steadily increased;
2. Women have more disposable income and often
   fewer family responsibilities, meaning more time and money for drinking;
3. Women drinking has also become much more
   socially acceptable ,with pubs no longer being male dominate;
4. There’s constant bombardment of alcohol
   advertising specifically aimed at women.

However, the problem for women is that we simply can’t
process alcohol as well as men, because:

1. The average woman weighs less than the average
   man and so has less tissue to absorb alcohol;
2. Women have a proportionally higher ratio of fat
   to water than men and are therefore less able to ‘dilute’ alcohol within the
   body, because of this women have a higher concentration of alcohol in their
   blood than men after drinking the same amounts of alcohol;
3.  It is thought that women have lower levels of
   alcohol dehydrogenase (AHD) activity in their livers, so the alcohol stays
   longer in the system before being metabolised and therefore has a greater
   effect.

Now you can appreciate why the recommended alcohol
consumption levels for women are so much lower than for men – 2 to 3 units per
day  for women as opposed 3 to 4 units
for men.

Currently

• A third of women drink more than the recommended
  daily amount;
• 6% of women drink at ‘at risk’ levels – more
  than 35 units per week;
• Around 29 per 1,000 women are dependent on
  alcohol;
• A recent survey showed that the average woman
  drinks 9.2 units of alcohol per week, equivalent to around one bottle of wine;
• The average number of units women drink in a
  week decreases with age from 11.3 units for those aged 16 to 24 to 5.3 units
  for women aged 65 and over.

Regularly drinking more than the recommended amount can damage
your health and it is suggested that you should have some ‘alcohol free’ days
each week – if only to give your liver a break. However, whilst most of us are aware of the potential health
issues, it is the safety issues associated with ingestion of alcohol that are
also of concern. When drunk, judgement is impaired which can lead to
dangerous situations particularly for women.

A survey on young women and
alcohol for a magazine found that two thirds of respondents had woken up in the
morning with no recollection of what had happened the night before while one in ten had had to be escorted home by
a stranger. Three in ten had lost keys, money and other
valuables during a drunken night out. Another survey found that one in six women have had unsafe
sex after drinking too much.

The number of women arrested for being drunk and disorderly
is also on the increase. You are probably getting the picture by now, red and white
‘tea’ definitely come with a ‘government health warning’!

 What is really
worrying  though is the attitude of young
people to alcohol consumption and the current culture of ‘binge drinking’ and ‘pre-loading’. ‘Binge Drinking’ is defined as drinking twice the daily
recommended level in one sitting . Teenagers have a somewhat different view, for them the aim
of ‘binge drinking’ is to get ‘plastered’ or ‘wasted’ in other words ….drunk. As a concept this is alien to most of us who see drunkenness
as a consequence of over ingestion
rather than a desired state.

‘Pre-loading’ is common amongst teenagers. This is where a
group of teenagers will meet up, often in one of their homes, and drink
substantial amounts prior to going out for the evening. Alcohol is usually
obtained by pooling resources and purchasing through retail outlets.

There are other factors that impact too, whilst we do not
have the ‘gang culture’ in Pembrokeshire we do have the ‘rugby culture’ which
impacts on the behaviour of both boys and girls. Rurality and isolation are
issues in this area that impact on drinking behaviour.

One thing that did emerge from the discussion with SUDDS is
that, as adults, we may not appreciate the effect our own behaviour has on
young people’s attitude to drinking. How many parents come home in the evening
and, after a hard day’s work, pour themselves a large drink simply to relieve
the stress of the day?

One of the key messages to emerge from our discussions is
that we need to alter attitudes- including our own. So what can we do to alter attitudes to Alcohol and its
consumption?

Raise the awareness of others  in any way, shape or form that we can. Target
specific areas – don’t try to tackle too large an issue. Why not tackle
advertisers, sponsors or campaign to have retail outlets restricted.

As a Club our next step is to speak to our local licensing
officer re the retailing issues. Meanwhile I shall treat my glass of red ‘tea’ with more
respect.

As an aside, I have just returned from Kerala in Southern
India.  Interestingly, the first  day of the month is a ‘dry’ day when no alcohol
can be sold, supplied or served anywhere in the state.