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95 non alcoholic female employees were personally interviewed and divided into three drinking pattern groups with an increasing level of alcohol consumption: the traditional feminine drinking group (TF) (n = 28), the new feminine drinking group (NF) (n = 37), and the masculine drinking group (M) (n = 30). The groups were compared on family variables which may be regarded as risk factors of alcoholism. The results show an inverse relationship between family risk factors and consumption level, the TF-group having significantly more risk factors than the other two groups. The TF-women more often came from families where the mother and her parents were abstainers, while the father and his parents were more often alcohol abusers or not abstainers. The TF-women were more often attached to their alcoholic fathers as children, while the M-women were more often attached to their mothers. The choice of drinking pattern may be inversely related to the frequency of family risk factors among non alcoholic women.