Women drinkers 'unfairly represented in the media'

Women are being unfairly targeted by newspapers which state that binge drinking is a widespread problem, it has been claimed.

Dr Rachel Seabrook, research manager at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said that people seem to be more shocked that women go out and drink alcohol.

"We shouldn't focus on women all the time. All the stories in the papers seem to be about women. It's actually men who drink far more," she commented.

Indeed, Alcohol Concern recently reported that 22 per cent of men drank at least five times per week in 2005, compared to only 13 per cent of women.

However, Ms Seabrook warned that this is not an excuse for binge drinking at weekends or drinking copious amounts of alcohol during the week.

"Heavy sessions on a Friday or Saturday are worse than steady drinking throughout the week. Either way you drink it though, the quantity of alcohol matters, whether it's two drinks a day or fourteen drinks on a Friday night. Both ways round it will affect you," she warned.

The Department of Health states that women should not regularly drink more than two to three units of alcohol per day and men should not regularly drink more than three to four units a day.

It also stated that drinking over six units a day for a woman or over eight units a day for a man was classed as binge drinking.