Gender-responsive health promotion for women: regulating the sociopolitical landscape of alcohol product marketing.

This article focuses on the need for gender-responsive health promotion policies to regulate alcohol marketing targeting women, particularly in Australia, to mitigate alcohol-related harms and protect women's health. It highlights how alcohol companies exploit women's gendered social roles and stereotypes in subtle marketing tactics that are not addressed by Australia's current self-regulatory Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC), which is described as gender-blind. Drawing on the Global Alcohol Action Plan, the Australian National Women's Health Strategy 2020–30, and the World Health Organization's 2024 Framework on Gender-Responsive Approaches to Alcohol, the article calls for stronger regulatory action to address the commercial and sociopolitical determinants influencing women's alcohol consumption, especially among midlife women. It emphasizes that effective health promotion must consider structural and systemic factors shaping women's drinking behaviors and involve women's perspectives to develop equitable, gender-sensitive interventions.