i'm not sure that educaton has anything to do with partying more when you are young. i would hypothesize that younger folks drink/party more than older folks, regardless of income/education. and that the well-educated/wealthier folk can afford to spend more when they party. whether they then a) buy more expensive alcohol, b) consume more, or c) both, depends on the customer, wouldn't you think.

however, having working in the alcohol corporate accountability movement for a while, i can say that HEAVY binge drinking amongst young women is a relatively new phenomenon. you can blame it partially on marketing, partially on drinks like Mike's Hard Lemonade (which mask the taste of alcohol and are marketing to young girls), and partially on the fact that women have more disposable income than they did before and are willing to spend it on things that they enjoy-- like partying.

Well, first off, I'm gonna be the requisite survey-design nitpicker. Basing conclusions on *recollections* of drinking seems like it could be problematic - for instance, it may be that for women who went to collge, there is some set of reasons that they are more likely to remember drinking more.

Beyond that, though, a few reasons this may be the case:

- Women who go to college are less likely to have kids in their early twenties, yes? So this means that they would probably drink more. and then, those women who had kids in their late teens/early twenties are either childfree or their kids are teenagers when they're in their 40s. But the women who had kids in their thirties still have rugrats.

- I wonder if they controlled in any way for cultural issues. For instance, from what I understand, Muslims are a sizable minority in England and religious Muslims don't drink, especially women (even my very progressive Muslim friends/classmates don't drink).

I also think the work enironment has a lot to do with it. Women with college educations are more likely to have office jobs, where drinking is part of the culture. *Also*, if you have to work two or three jobs to make ends meet, as many people without higher degrees do, you don't have a lot of time to drink.

Or perhaps more educated women are more aware of the state of the world around them, which depresses them, which makes them want a beer.
I know, I just pulled that out of my arse. I'll make more sense after a beer or two.

Actually, Ugly in Pink, that was my first thought as well. Haha.

Well, I can tell you that lawyers and law students drink a lot. A LOT.

Law school, at least, has a HUGE drinking culture. Not the same as a frat boy culture -- though the primary difference might be that law students prefer red wine and scotch rather than beer. Law students are regularly courted by firms and employers at cocktail receptions, law school events are organized around drinking, law professors talk openly about their drinking habits, encouraging students to drink more (seriously -- my civil procedure professor's often-used intro to a hypothetical was "imagine you're sipping a glass of scotch and studying your civil procedure casebook" and he was a well-known scotch coinesseur (sp?)). Many (most?) law schools fund alcohol for law school events, which is a great way to increase turnout. The pressure in law school is pretty intense, so it makes sense students would take up drinking (or more of it).

I imagine other grad schools are similar. This sort of approach trains you into a life in which you're more likely to drink, as opposed to college, where frat boy partying can be brushed off as youthful indiscretion. Grad school drinking makes drinking seem like an adult occupation -- thus normalizing it for legitimately grown-up professionals.

Or perhaps more educated women are more aware of the state of the world around them, which depresses them, which makes them want a beer.
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I'd be more likely to take that from the opposite direction--women with less education (and the lower income that, statistically, comes with less education) are more directly aware, on a daily basis, by the "state of the world around them." Those of us with more privilege had to "get educated" in order to learn what women in poverty deal with daily.

Samhita is looking for an excuse to drink. She's so thoughtful and everything! ;)

HearTheFire - Sure, but poor women are too busy actually dealing with the implications of said state of affairs to have time to sit around and bemoan them in a glass of alcohol. ;-)

I imagine other grad schools are similar. This sort of approach trains you into a life in which you're more likely to drink, as opposed to college, where frat boy partying can be brushed off as youthful indiscretion. Grad school drinking makes drinking seem like an adult occupation -- thus normalizing it for legitimately grown-up professionals.

I can tell you that my grad school experience certainly included a drinking culture. We live for Friday happy hour sometimes.