When it comes to drinking, alcohol education programs are taking notice that men and women are not created equal.

The university may consider gender differences in drinking behavior when it makes improvements to its alcohol education programs, University Health Education Services coordinator Linda LaSalle said.

"We're actually in the process of figuring out what to do in terms of a gender-based approach in the future," she said. "We're working on a social marketing campaign next year that deals with gender issues."

A study conducted by Crossroads, the University of North Carolina at Wilmington's alcohol abuse prevention program, and the U.S. Department of Education is finding that gender-based programs have had an impact in discouraging dangerous behaviors.

Aimee Hourigan, Substance Abuse Prevention coordinator for Crossroads, said focus groups with students led her program to concentrate on gender and drinking.

"We determined that there were really distinct cultures in how men drink and women drink," Hourigan said. "If we were going to address high-risk drinking, [gender] was an issue we needed to focus on."

LaSalle said new statistics about women's drinking behaviors were a factor in motivating new approaches to alcohol education at Penn State.

"More women are going to the [emergency room] for alcohol poisoning than ever before," she said. "We don't know the exact causes, but we do know that alcohol consumption in female students is an issue that we need to address."

Hourigan said different role expectations of men and women can lead to dangerous drinking behavior.

"For men, there are two routes to dangerous drinking: stereotypical beliefs about masculinity and men who feel a lot of gender-role stress," Hourigan said. "[With women], they are in this situation where they are supposed to be able to live up to men, but at the same time, they feel a lot of pressure about living up to society's expectations."

Dennis Heitzmann, Penn State's Counseling and Psychological Services director, said a program conducted with the help of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board would review multiple factors involving alcohol education.

"[Gender considerations] are something that will be addressed in the context of this effort," Heitzmann said.

Diana Ramos, who supervises part of Penn State's Alcohol Intervention Program, counsels violators of the university's alcohol policies on a one-on-one basis, leaving room to consider a variety of issues tied to drinking habits.

"The beauty of this model is that it is tailored to the individual needs of the students," Ramos said. "It takes into account many factors, including gender differences."

Gender differences in drinking behavior are also a concern for Penn State's Prevention Research Center, research associate Nadine Mastroleo said.

"In the past, most research has been done on men," she said. "Now we're really expanding it and making sure we focus on women as well as men."

Hourigan said she advises universities to take into account gender issues and more enlightened views of underage drinking.

"We don't take the approach of 'don't drink' or 'drugs are bad,'" she said. "It's about helping students make healthy decisions -- decisions that will make sure they are still here the next day."