Drinking, rurality and gender: women’s narratives of drinking cultures in an Australian country town — ASN Events

Drinking, rurality and gender: women’s narratives of drinking cultures in an Australian country town (14164)

Susannah Clement 1
  1. University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia

This paper investigates women’s narratives of alcohol to help explain why alcohol related health harm in rural areas often far exceeds that of metropolitan areas; with men and young adults reported at most medical risk. The focus on women’s narratives of alcohol provides insights into the gendered dynamics of drinking that sustain alcohol as a key part of making sense of rural social leisure times, places and subjectivities. Drawing on a mixed-method approach informed by post-structural feminist concepts, interviews and photo diaries were conducted with seventeen women of European and British ancestry from a country town in Victoria, Australia. Results explore the reciprocal relationships that forge drinking subjectivities, practices, times and places with particular attention given to the shifting intersection of sets of ideas about rurality, gender, sex, class, age and alcohol.