Given recent media coverage of women's drinking habits, it is surprising that a topic of such interest has not produced a comprehensive examination. This book provides not just a survey spanning a century of momentous change, but integrates diverse sources with concepts to offer a new understanding of the changing nature of women's drinking patterns. It challenges traditional assumptions and offers original interpretations about the diverse factors influencing women's consumption of alcohol, including advertising, moral panics, sexism, legislative initiatives, employment, age, ethnicity, technology, new drinking venues and marketing strategies.

What most influenced how women transformed their consumption of alcohol? What beverages did they drink? To what extent did women themselves act as agents of change? These and other questions serve as the basis for analysing women's drinking patterns from a social and cultural perspective. Close attention is also paid to the image of drinking projected in advertising, the mass media and films.