This book is the product of a multinational research project on Gender Alcohol and Culture: an International Study (GENACIS). GENACIS is a major collaborative effort to highlight the relationship between gender and alcohol issues, seek greater understanding of male and female differences in patterns of drinking and alcohol problems, and assess the public health implications of drinking by men and women.

Each of the eight country-specific chapters in this volume consists of a review of alcohol and alcohol policy in the country, and an analysis of social and health problems associated with drinking. For several of the countries, this is the first systematic attempt to provide a broad insight into gender issues and how they relate to alcohol problems. In an era of growing consumption and increasing burden of alcohol-related problems in many developing countries, the findings reported in this book, and the GENACIS project in general, are a major step forward in our understanding of the role of gender in alcohol behaviors.