Abstract
The summer holidays should be a time for rest, celebration, and connection. But every year, increased alcohol consumption contributes to spikes in violence overwhelmingly inflicted by men against women, children, and young people.
The gendered links between alcohol, violence, and poor health and social outcomes (including death) for women are well-known. But government responses remain genderblind – driving inaction, victim-blaming narratives, and ultimately enabling the alcohol industry’s harmful influence on gendered violence to proliferate.
This Briefing outlines alcohol’s role in structural and interpersonal violence against women. It calls for gender-responsive alcohol harm-reduction as one part of the comprehensive approach required to support women’s health, autonomy and agency, non-violent environments, and progress towards gender equality.