Uncorking the ‘wine mum’: Exploring the complexity of Australian women's everyday lives and drinking practices

ABSTRACT:

Background: With greater attention given to midlife women's drinking in research and in media representations of ‘wine mums’, we suggest that focusing on static gender roles (e.g., women as mothers) risks overlooking complex and dynamic features of women's lives. We draw on the concept of thick intersectionality to explore how everyday experiences of women's lives and multiple identities shape their drinking practices. 

Methods: This study draws on interviews with Australian women in their forties and fifties who were employed, had school-aged children and drank alcohol. We present four detailed accounts as interpreted narratives. 

Results: Close analysis of the stories of four women highlights important features of women's lives. Drinking practices were often intertwined with gendered labour, power inequalities and managing stresses borne from these. Gender, class, relationality, life course transitions, affect and various aspects of labour dynamics (temporality, autonomy and unseen labour) were prominent in the accounts. Alongside this health, geography, life histories and culture interacted in women's narratives and the various identities and roles they moved between, co-producing drinking practices in different ways. 

Conclusion: By juxtaposing women's stories with ‘wine mum’ stereotypes, and the broader feminisation of drinking, we highlight how women's drinking practices are influenced not only by static identities, but the complex interplay between gender, a myriad of fluid social categories, and day-to-day life. We suggest that attending to context and women's everyday experiences is crucial for generating a nuanced understanding of drinking beyond women's traditional gender roles.