Funding available for two PhD projects focusing on women and alcohol
The Sheffield Addictions Research Group (SARG), a centre of excellence for alcohol and public health research, is seeking two PhD students to investigate women's drinking and its impact on health.
Both projects explore the rising trend of women's alcohol consumption in England and its consequences. While one project will take a quantitative approach, analysing large datasets, the other will use predominantly qualitative methods to focus on women's experiences in traditionally male-dominated professions known for heavy drinking cultures.
1. What's happening with women's drinking? Understanding gender inequalities in alcohol consumption and harm in England
Supervisors: Colin Angus and Dr Abi Stevely
Levels of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm are higher among men, but this gap has been narrowing over time, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, when alcohol deaths have risen significantly more among women than men. However, relatively little is understood about changes in women's drinking and how these changes may have influenced trends in alcohol-attributable harm. We also do not have a clear understanding of how the overall harm profile of alcohol differs between men and women and how these differences may have changed over time.
This project will make use of a wide range of survey, market research and epidemiological data to quantify and understand trends and patterns in women's drinking in recent decades and how these relate to shifts in drinking culture in England over the same period. You will develop new methods to quantify gender differences in the overall impact that alcohol consumption has on hospital admissions and mortality and how these have changed since 2001, use leading epidemiological modelling tools to forecast how these trends may play out in the future and consider the implications of these trends for future gender inequalities in health.
The results of this project will provide a deep understanding of gender differences in alcohol consumption and harm and the role that alcohol plays in gender inequalities in health. The findings will help to inform future alcohol policy decisions.
2. A qualitative investigation of the connections between changes in women's alcohol consumption and their participation in heavy drinking professions
Supervisors: Dr Laura Fenton and Prof John Holmes
Women's alcohol consumption has increased substantially over recent decades in the United Kingdom and other high-income countries. At the same time, women have entered in larger numbers into professions previously dominated by men, such as journalism, law and finance. The cultural practices of these professions have historically involved heavy drinking but we have a limited understanding of how women's entry into them has interacted with their increased drinking. Investigating how women experience and negotiate the drinking cultures of different professions can therefore provide us with a stronger understanding of the underlying practices that contribute to the rise in women's drinking and how this trend might be mitigated.
This project sits within a set of studies undertaken by the University of Sheffield's Addictions Research Group that aim to understand trends and patterns in alcohol consumption, and how they are affected by public health interventions. In particular, we have previously used qualitative methods to analyse the reasons for the decline in young people's alcohol consumption and want to apply similar approaches to trends in adult drinking.
This PhD project aims to understand how women in professions with cultures of heavy drinking experience and negotiate these cultures, what consequences they perceive their involvement in these cultures to have on their own drinking, and the implications of this for public health policy.
The deadline for applications is Wednesday 26 June 2024.
SARG's Lucy Burke wins Open Research Prize 2025
Lucy Burke, a Qualitative Research Associate and PhD Student with the Sheffield Addictions Research Group (SARG), has been awarded the University of Sheffield Open Research Prize 2025 in the Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) category.
SARG showcases research at School of Medicine and Population Health event
Researchers from SARG are set to showcase their work at the University of Sheffield's School of Medicine and Population Health Research and Innovation Meeting 2025.
New project aims to embed youth voices in local tobacco and vape policymaking
A collaborative project emphasising the crucial role of young people's voices in shaping public health policy has been awarded funding from the NIHR School for Public Health Research (SPHR).
SARG Heads to Glasgow for 50th Anniversary KBS Symposium
A team of twenty researchers and PhD students from the Sheffield Addictions Research Group (SARG) will be participating in the landmark 50th Anniversary KBS Symposium for Social and Epidemiological Research on Alcohol next month.
You might also be interested in…
Interdisciplinary Alcohol Policy Research Programme
The overarching aim for this ambitious programme of research was to lead a step-change in capabilities for robust scientific appraisal of new and existing alcohol policy interventions by substantially developing and updating the Sheffield Alcohol Policy Model.
Sheffield Addictions Research Group to present at KBS Alcohol Epidemiology Symposium
A team of nine will be travelling from Sheffield to Australia in May to share their work with alcohol researchers from across the world.
Increase in alcohol deaths in England an 'acute crisis'
The persistent higher rate of alcohol deaths in England since the pandemic in 2020 is an 'acute crisis' requiring urgent action from government, according to a new study led by researchers from University College London and the Sheffield Addictions Research Group.