Femininities, ruralities and alcohol geographies: Women’s life narratives of ‘going out’ and ‘staying in’ in an Australian country town

This thesis aims to better understand the relationship between women, age, rurality and alcohol. Specifically this thesis is concerned with transformations in women’s drinking over life-courses. The entry point is women's narratives of ‘going out’ or ‘staying in’. Using a mix-method approach informed by post-structural feminist concepts, interviews and photo diaries of women from a country town in Victoria, Australia, were unpacked using discourse and narrative analysis. Attention was given to explore the different ways these women use or avoid alcohol, to make sense of themselves, their relationships with others and the places they live in as rural. Results explore sets of ideas about gendered responsibilities, classed and aged respectabilities and appropriate rural femininities that are key in shaping and reshaping the reciprocal relationships that forge drinking subjectivities, practices and places.