Moving from a Pedagogy of Oppression to Hope: A New Way of Supporting Alcohol Reduction for Heavy Drinking Groups of Midlife Women

Australian midlife women (45-64 years) consume more alcohol than previous generations of midlife women and more than other age groups of women currently. While men consume more alcohol than women, midlife women experience specific gendered risks from drinking alcohol, including increased risk of breast cancer. Midlife women who drink alcohol face a triple burden: 1) all midlife women (irrespective of alcohol consumption) are at risk of breast cancer due to their age; 2) midlife women who drink alcohol have an increased risk of breast cancer (a dose-response relationship); and 3) midlife women in specific socio-cultural groups face structural disadvantages which increase their likelihood of heavy alcohol consumption, further increasing their breast cancer risk.

Our paper will present data from a qualitative study with midlife women from four different heavy-drinking social worlds to highlight the ‘forces of oppression’ currently shaping their drinking: 1) women living in regional centres; 2) lesbian, bisexual or queer (LBQ) cis-gender women; 3) women living in poverty; and 4) women working in the corporate sector. Options for reducing alcohol harms are analysed with an intersectional lens, considering social class, sexuality, and ethnicity. During the interviews, women were empowered to recognise, through raising their critical consciousness, the forms of oppression shaping their heavy-drinking practices. Our paper will draw on and critique Freire’s theories and methodology to understand if/how women recognise the Pedagogies of Oppression that shape their alcohol consumption practices, if/how they can develop a critical consciousness about the forms of oppression and identify changes within their social worlds to disrupt and re-shape drinking practices via Pedagogies of Hope. Rather than emphasise the behaviours of individual women (avoiding victim blaming/stigma), we will analyse the interconnected gendered social practices located within ‘social worlds’ that frame heavy-drinking in specific social groups and place women at risk of alcohol harms.