Female Drunkenness.

Hastings Standard, Issue 123, 17 September 1896, Page 4

Female Drunkenness.

Has female drunkenness increased ? This is a question of importance from a social aspect, but it is one not easy to answer very definitely. Personal impression is apt to be a misleading guide, even where experience is untinged by prejudice, and statistics available cannot be depended upon with any degree of certitude. In England the Royal Commission on the Liquor Laws has been taking the subject, with others, into consideration. There is a consensus of opinion that drunkenness has clearly diminished of late years, but the cheering evidence is dashed by the uncomfortable inference that the rate of diminution is less among women than men. Taking England and Wales for an example, the proportion of women convicted of drunkenness, or offences including drunkenness, has shown a marked tendency to rise during the last 10 years. In London especially is there significant illustration of this fact. Women, when they do give way to drink, are more hopelessly incorrigible than men. Their moral fibre is more easily deteriorated, and the evil of drink is displayed in its worst aspect. It is not necessary, however, to exaggerate the growth of female intemperance. There is no evidence to support the conclusion that drunkenness has increased among women. Public records since the beginning of the century do not justify this assertion. On the contrary, they show an improvement, though not in the same proportion as with men. There is a danger, however, on which statistics throw little light, and that is the phase of private drinking. Medical men in their assumptions on this subject may be generalising too widely from single instances, but there is no doubt a common impression that the evil is on the increase.