There's always been a rich history of women who like to raise a glass. Even though the most famous books about alcohol have been written by men-Under the Volcano, The Sun Also Rises, Tender is the Night-plenty of women writers have approached the subject and bellied up to the bar.
Even the mother of all modern women's writing, Virginia Woolf, talking about visiting the fictitious university of Oxbridge, despairs when she compares the robust and plentiful delights available at the feast provided by the high table at the men's college compared to the sniveling, sad, depressed dinner available to women.
The men's colleges at Oxbridge boast some of the finest cellars in the country; the women's colleges have nothing at all. "For that visit to Oxbridge and the luncheon and the dinner had started a swarm of questions. Why did men drink wine and women water? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor?" No less than the feminist manifesto "A Room Of One's Own" encourages women to understand that drink as well as food acts as a declaration of feminine independence.
The ten top books written by women that include fabulous scenes about the pleasures, and, yes, the hazards, of being seen in your cups when you're wearing a B-cup, are the following:
George (Burton): "Drinks! Drinks for all! Rubbing alcohol for you, Martha?"
Hemingway was quoted in a biography of his later years in Cuba when pouring the gin at 11am. He said, 'Well, it's noon in Miami."