As Women's Health Month draws to a close, the focus in on the growing issue of alcohol misuse among women in Missouri and across the nation. Research shows between 2021 and 2022, more than 1 in 5 women ages 18 to 44 in Missouri said they drank heavily, meaning eight or more drinks a week. Medical data shows that heavy drinking raises the risks of organ damage, cancer and pregnancy complications.

Merna Eppick, sober for 37 years, founded the Simmering Center recovery housing in Branson to help others find the same freedom. But she emphasized that statistics on women and alcohol misuse may not tell the full story because many women suffer in silence.

"If you were to look at the complexion of recovery opportunities, whether you go into a 12-step meeting, a treatment center, recovery housing, it's usually somewhere between a quarter and a third women and two thirds men, or three quarters men," she said.

Research shows women face greater social fallout, broken relationships and stigma from alcohol misuse. Eppick said there is help through peer respite support - community-based care for those in crisis.

According to statistics, alcohol misuse also puts women at higher risk for violence, car crashes and job loss. Almost 40 people in the United States die every day from alcohol-related crashes alone.

Dr. Lisa Saul, chief medical officer with UnitedHealthcare, noted that alcohol is deeply embedded in our culture, shaping how we socialize and view drinking.

"We are currently in a season of celebrations, the weddings and graduations and things of that nature - and it's become more and more of a cultural norm," she explained.

While the pandemic amplified alcohol misuse among women, the trend dates back to at least 2019, when 32% of high school girls reported drinking, compared with 26% of boys.

Women college graduates are not sticking to traditional compatibility traits when choosing a husband, according to one study. Preferences are changing as economics play a larger role.

American Institute for Boys and Men data say female college graduates have difficulty finding equally-educated partners.

University of Indianapolis Sociology Professor Amanda Miller, PhD, said historically, college-educated women married within the same circles.

Instead of foregoing marriage entirely, Miller explained, more are deciding on "exogamy" - marrying outside their social group.

"They're dipping down into a group of men who do not have a college education, but who do make a good living financially," said Miller. "College-educated women - if they can't find a man who has a degree - they're marrying, for example, someone who's a general contractor and has his own business, or a union pipefitter who makes a really good living."

The study found that marriage rates for college-educated women remain stable, even as their primary partners -- college-educated men -- become scarce.

Only about 50% of college-educated women marry a man at the same education level, while roughly 25% marry someone without a college degree. Another 25% remain single.

According to the research site World Population Review, in Indiana 50% of men and almost 48% of women are married.

Miller said remaining single or having a baby out of wedlock no longer carries the stigma it has in previous generations.

She added that the "working class" often has conservative or very traditional family values, and most people's beliefs and behaviors don't always go together.

"So, if you ask people with a high school diploma or perhaps an associate's degree or some college, 'Is it okay to have a baby out of wedlock? Is it okay to get divorced? Is it okay to cohabit?'" said Miller, "their answer is often 'no.' The flip side happens when we talk to the college-educated - they don't actually do those things themselves."

Miller also noted a decrease in women out-earning or being more educated than their husbands.

She observed that as college-educated women choose to marry men without college degrees, fewer working-class men marry women of a similar background.

Sunday is Mother's Day, and what moms may need most is a day off.

Research shows that inequities persist in the amount of time moms and dads spend on child care. In 2023, American mothers spent on average 167% more time on primary caregiving than fathers. And the Institute for Women's Policy Research says that costs a mom nearly $17,000 per year - and $450 billion nationwide - in "foregone" income.

Kate Bahn, the institute's chief economist and senior vice president for research, said the trend continues with "secondary child care," or supervising children while multitasking - mothers spend 133% more time doing so than fathers.

"That is not time you can go into an office. That is not time where you can be out of the house," she said. "And so, that is time where you also still can't work for earnings. Some mothers are really constrained by their disproportionate caregiving responsibility."

Data show that in Montana, mothers make 59% of what fathers make per year - a difference of nearly $25,000. The inequities are worse among Native American moms in the state, whose pay is about half the earnings of white fathers.

Bahn added that rural families may face extra barriers.

"If we're thinking about all the constraints that shape how women decide to engage in the labor market," she said, "it can be things like driving distance to a job, access to child-care services for your children."

A bill to help support child-care workers in Montana passed both chambers of the state Legislature and could get to the governor's desk. It would expand eligibility for the "Best Beginnings Child Care Scholarship Program" to include child care workers - who are some of the state's lowest-paid workers.


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Wildland firefighting is a tough job and the industry has long struggled with worker retention. Training boot camps have helped bring new firefighters, especially women, into the fold in recent years, but federal cuts could threaten progress.

About 84% of federal wildland firefighters are men, according to the U.S. Government Accountability Office. Boot camps targeting women have been popular. Montana saw its first just last year.

Riva Duncan, vice president of the group Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, worked in fire for more than three decades and said the boot camps offered a "safe environment" to raise concerns.

"Beyond the actual required training, just having discussions about, 'Well, how do you address hygiene? What do I do if I feel like I'm being treated unfairly?' And those kinds of questions that don't get covered in a classroom setting," Duncan explained.

Since the boot camps are designed to increase workforce diversity, future programs have been cut under the Trump administration's DEI rollbacks. Following the firing and then rehiring of 6,000 U.S. Department of Agriculture employees since February, including some with firefighting duties, the Interior Department announced permanent pay raises for wildland firefighters in the new federal appropriations budget.

The U.S. Forest Service has seen a 45% attrition rate of wildland firefights over the last three years. Duncan argued the DEI cuts will not help.

"We need people who want to do this work. We need the kind of people that value working on the public lands and serving the American taxpayers," Duncan emphasized. "This has detrimental effects to the overall recruitment and retention strategy to try and get firefighters into these jobs."

Fourteen different scheduled women's boot camps have been canceled. According to the USDA, about 65,000 wildfires burned nearly 9 million acres across the U.S. in 2024.


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