Bottles Behind the Sofa: Class Performance, and the Moral Geographies of Women's Drinking

This article explores how women's maternal roles intersect with cultural norms and social class to shape their attitudes, emotions, and practices around alcohol consumption, with particular attention to drinking in the presence of children. Drawing on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork with 48 women in Australia and England, this study reveals that, for women, drinking in the presence of children is a complex activity involving practices of self-control, risk-mitigation, and performances of respectability and responsibility. Through participant observation in domestic and public spaces, and analysis of women's narratives, I demonstrate how women employ diverse strategies—concealment, justification, othering, and spatial/temporal boundary setting—to navigate the contradictions between maternal ideologies and drinking practices. These strategies are shaped by social class positioning and cultural influences. When women feel that maternal responsibility is compromised, women may express emotions of guilt, shame, and remorse, though the depth, duration, and meaning of these expressions vary considerably by individual and class context—and may reflect culturally scripted performances of “proper motherhood.”