Article in NPR discussing women's increased drinking

And the latest U.S. data from 2019 shows that women in their teens and early 20s reported drinking and getting drunk at higher rates than their male peers — in some cases for the first time since researchers began measuring such behavior.

Alas, the consequences are not "equal"

Research shows women suffer health consequences of alcohol — liver disease, heart disease and cancer — more quickly than men and even with lower levels of consumption.

And

some studies show it may lead to depression more quickly in women than in men.

Interestingly, the younger adults' drinking is declining overall--the decline is just slower among men.

For women over 26, they're increasing their alcohol consumption faster than men.

What might be at play here, and how much might gender dynamics be contributing?

Are young men just becoming hermits (hence their drinking is decreasing more rapidly)? That's not the age yet where women can blame "balancing work and parenthood" as what they're medicating , so what might be causing their relatively slower decrease in drinking?