Introduction

Women's drinking has been identified as a perennial issue (Nicholls, 2009, p 2) in social and political narratives in which alcohol is considered as a problem. Indeed, women's drinking is discursively constructed as a greater problem than men's drinking (Ettorre, 1997, p 15; Waterson, 2000, p 12). It is possible to argue that the negative discourses of women's drinking cannot solely be related to knowledge about the prevalence of women's problem drinking from epidemiological studies. The construction of women's drinking as a social problem is a product of sociohistorical constructions of femininity. Therefore, women's drinking is the target of gender-specific moral regulation practices.

The practices of moral regulation are a common feature of contemporary alcohol regulation policies. Moral regulation is described as ‘an interesting and significant form of politics in which some people act to problematize the conduct, values or culture of others and seek to impose regulation upon them’ (Hunt, 1999, p 1). In current alcohol regulation policies, moral regulation acts to impact the behaviour of the drinker through self-regulation. Successful self-regulation among a drinking population becomes more significant in a time when policies governing the availability of alcohol are liberalised (Critcher, 2011, p 182).

This chapter examines moral regulation practices through the campaign materials from alcohol regulation organisations in two historical periods, paying specific attention to the constructions of the drinking woman in these campaigns.

The alcohol regulation campaign materials examined here are from mid-19th-century British temperance organisations and from alcohol regulation campaign groups in the time period 2004–14. The reasons for selecting these time periods are discussed later in this chapter. However, for now it is important to note that moral regulation was of particular significance in these time periods due to increasing liberalisation of alcohol sales in England.

By examining how the drinking female is presented as transgressing the social norms of femininity through consuming alcohol problematically, the significance of understanding the social context of gendered alcohol regulatory practices are brought to attention. Additionally, similarities and differences in the themes of transgressive femininity and alcohol consumption are drawn upon. This demonstrates how moral regulation practices have used socially constructed gender norms in the production of female-specific drinking norms.