Women, Work, and Alcohol: Failures of Simple Theories

Abstract

When trying to explain how women's employment affects their drinking behavior, oversimplified theories produce weak and inconsistent results. Recent research casts doubt on any simple ideas that paid employment is hazardous for women's mental health and drinking, or that paid employment is beneficial for women's mental health and drinking, or that stressful jobs increase women's risks of problem drinking. Improved, more complex theories could specify which women will modify their drinking behavior as a result of particular employment experiences, predict interaction effects of employment conditions with other aspects of women's lives, and explain how employment may create a context where other variables may increase or reduce risks of problem drinking.