Along with it has gone an increase in the amount of
drug-taking; some, at any rate, of the drugs being not dissimilar to
alcohol in their action upon mind and body.
It is here necessary not so much to discuss the causes of this fact as
to insist upon its consequences and indicate some possible remedies. So
far as one can judge there seem to be three principal causes for this
increase of drinking amongst women, and quite briefly they may be named
in order to guide the subsequent discussion, though it is not necessary
to occupy space here in discussing all the evidence for this diagnosis.
A cause of some importance at work amongst women of the middle and upper
classes would seem to be the general tendency to revolt against sex
restrictions and limitations. In order to prove themselves the equals of
men, women proceed to demonstrate that they are capable of imitating
men's vices and indulgences. The trainer of chimpanzees for the
music-hall acts on the same principle. Directly the animals can smoke
and drink, they are such good imitations of men, in his judgment and
that of his patrons, as to be worthy of exhibition. Any ape, any boy,
any man, can learn to smoke and drink. It may be taken for granted that
any woman can do likewise, but the actual demonstration is worse than
superfluous.
Much more important as a cause of the increased drinking amongst women
of the lower classes are the modern conditions of factory and industrial
life which so largely take women out of the home; the making of life
being neglected in order to serve some industry or other which, if it
costs the loss of the coming life, is a national cancer, however
grateful its expansion may appear to the capitalist or the Chancellor of
the Exchequer.
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