A new study has shown us the “dark side of equality.”
Women are twice as likely to binge drink in order to keep up with men, according to the U.K. publication The Telegraph.
The recent report, which was conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, reportedly showed that one in five women in England who has received higher education regularly drank too much.
“You have seen women moving to areas which were traditionally male and were traditionally male and were traditionally drinking professionals,” explained Mark Pearson, OECD head of health.
“As women have moved in to those professions they have adopted the patterns that were there for men.”
The recent study compared the drinking habits of men and women from 34 Western countries through analyzing social surveys, according to the U.K. publication The Daily Mail.
There was reportedly a direct link between whether someone drank dangerously, meaning beyond their limit, and the number of years they had spent in education. Women are now reportedly seen drinking regularly with their male colleagues.
“They [women] aren’t being frogmarched by their bosses but there are social pressures to go out and to network,” stated Pearson.
Researchers have reportedly suggested that the fact that women are starting families later may contribute to the escalation of heaving drinking among professional females. The recent report has also brought attention to the fact that even young girls have started drinking to dangerous levels, surpassing the limits of teenage boys.
“Women with higher education may have better-paid jobs involving higher degrees of responsibility and thus may drink more heavily because they have more stress as well as more chances to go out drinking with male colleagues with higher limits of drinking,” the report reads.
“More years spent in education, improved labor market prospects, increased opportunities for socialization, delayed pregnancies and family ties, are all part of women’s changing lifestyles, in which alcohol drinking, sometimes heavy drinking, has easily found a place.”
