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Women Can Handle Their Liquor As Well As Men Now, So Cheers To Equality

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A study performed by researchers from Columbia University and the University of New South Whales has turned a prevailing wisdom regarding alcohol consumption on its head.

For centuries, men have been drinking alcohol way more than women.

That is, until now.

The new study, published in the BMJ Open Journal, shows women now drink just as much as men.

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Well, at least Millennials are drinking the same amount.

The study took a look at over four million people from 1948 and 2014 across the globe.

The study found men used to drink twice as much as women, but now only drink 1.1 times as much as their female counterparts.

However, men and women born between 1991 and 2000 now consume roughly the same amount of alcohol.

It also found this change wasn't caused by men slowing down their drinking habits.

Instead, it's caused by women drinking way more.

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This revelation might seem unimportant, frivolous or maybe just funny to you, but the truth is this could point to a real shift in gender politics, or at least be a symptom of a shift.

As The Atlantic points out, “differences in alcohol use have been central to societies' symbolizing and regulating gender roles.

In 2004, one Finnish research group wrote,

Gender differences in alcohol consumption are found everywhere, to such an extent that they can be considered one of  the few universal gender differences in human social behavior.
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As the Atlantic's James Hamblin puts it,

The closure of this alcohol gap seems to be a result of other gaps closing, like the percentage of women working outside the home—an unintended negative health consequence of social progress.

That's the good news.

The bad news is men and women are now equally at risk of developing harmful drinking habits, whereas not so long ago, men were almost three times as likely to struggle with alcoholism as women.

Drink responsibly, everyone!

Citations: USA Today