A recent study by Massey University found young women drink more than their male counterparts. The study interviewed 2000 people. It found women under 24 years old who purchase RTDs from off-licences drink almost 24 liters of alcohol per year.
Simone Barclay, recovering alcoholic and Auckland addiction treatment clinician, is concerned by the research. She said “Our society has got a very high tolerance for drunken ‘high jinks.’ We need to lower that threshold.”
Barclay said the finding was a sign of New Zealand’s changing attitudes and society. “One flipside of woman’s changing roles is ‘girls can do anything,’ girls are less lady-like – and so they should be. [Heavy drinking] is one way it is manifesting, they’re drinking just like the lads,” she said.
