Educated Women More Likely to Drink

But is there necessarily disposable income if the person is college educated? Or no disposable income if the person is not? There is some really cheap alcohol out there (so says the woman who just purchased wine for her risotto for under $3).

Melissa writes Stirrup Queens ( http://stirrup-queens.com ) and Lost and Found ( http://lostandfoundandconnectionsabound.blogspot.c... ). Her book is Navigating the Land of If ( http://thelandofif.blogspot.com/ ).

I'm sure there are a lot of outlying factors at stake here, but what makes the most sense to me is the disposable income theory. Alcohol is expensive...at least the good stuff is.

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I think it stopped at actually examining intelligence (something much more difficult to quantify) and instead looked at degrees. Which I agree--is a lot less interesting.

Melissa writes Stirrup Queens ( http://stirrup-queens.com ) and Lost and Found ( http://lostandfoundandconnectionsabound.blogspot.c... ). Her book is Navigating the Land of If ( http://thelandofif.blogspot.com/ ).

Perhaps it's as simple as something unique in the brain of someone who enjoys school also enjoys alcohol, that the same part of the brain is stimulated? Though I loved school and wanted to stay in school forever and I too am not much of a drinker.

Melissa writes Stirrup Queens ( http://stirrup-queens.com ) and Lost and Found ( http://lostandfoundandconnectionsabound.blogspot.c... ). Her book is Navigating the Land of If ( http://thelandofif.blogspot.com/ ).

Definitely possible. I wonder if they asked the women whether or not they had children when they did the study.

Melissa writes Stirrup Queens ( http://stirrup-queens.com ) and Lost and Found ( http://lostandfoundandconnectionsabound.blogspot.c... ). Her book is Navigating the Land of If ( http://thelandofif.blogspot.com/ ).

I don't think that's a strange request when you're shelling out $100,000+ for four years.

Melissa writes Stirrup Queens ( http://stirrup-queens.com ) and Lost and Found ( http://lostandfoundandconnectionsabound.blogspot.c... ). Her book is Navigating the Land of If ( http://thelandofif.blogspot.com/ ).

I don't know if they found a correlation either way with education and drinking trends with men.

You're definitely onto something with the grad school culture--alcohol was everywhere--but the study only looked at college educated women. Though I wonder if anyone is doing a study specifically with grad school women.

Melissa writes Stirrup Queens ( http://stirrup-queens.com ) and Lost and Found ( http://lostandfoundandconnectionsabound.blogspot.c... ). Her book is Navigating the Land of If ( http://thelandofif.blogspot.com/ ).

I knew I didn't finish my degree for a reason.

Heh. I wish that were true. But I went through a steady drinking phase in my 20s.

I wonder if the study went any deeper into the correlation between higher intelligence and daily drinking. That's more interesting to me than the degrees.

Never trust anyone who'd rather be grammatically correct than have a good time.

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Even though I am not much of a drinker, I noticed that many educated women enjoy drinking, and I often wondered if it's due to the pressure they experience with trying to break through the corporate "glass ceiling".

That's interesting and surprising to me. I agree that it must be to do with educated women tending to start having babies later since that's one reason why people have to give up heavy drinking for an extended period. Having kids must inhibit your ability to get plastered.

I'd like to see an education stick...and make a beneficial difference...not just go in one ear and out the other. But I'm strange like that.

 One Friday night, I loaded up my life and headed out... ( http://isledance.blogspot.com )

There are probably a host of reasons why this occurs, but I think that graduate schools breed a culture of drink that continues on into professions where the highly educated are centered.

For many, the undergraduate years are a time of experimentation. The freedom, the parties, the alcohol. Access to alcohol and other drugs is high on most college campuses and students learn to de-stress by indulging.

For those who go onto graduate school, the trend continues. Despite my experiences being with law schools, many of my friends in more traditional graduate programs or business school have found this to be true. Generally speaking, students tend to be about 21-23 when they start graduate school. It is a stressful process--the work is difficult, the hours are long, and the responsibilities greater. And then universities are providing their grad students with alcohol at weekly happy hours and student-professor events. They encourage the use of alcohol to wind down a week, which in turn validates the actions of the former 19 year old college sophomore.

So, at this point, you have a young adult who is under a lot of stress, has learned that alcohol is good for stress, and who is encouraged by educators to rely on that coping mechanism. Of course this behavior is going to flow out into the real world and be exacerbated by social and employment situations.

I'd like to know why the same result was not found with men. What is it about lesser educated men that make them drink that much more than lesser educated women?

S., your neighborhood Baking Barrister.

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