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A synonym of hen party and hen night, the expression hen do designates a celebration for a woman who is about to get married, attended by her female friends and relations.
Those celebrations are often held in nightclubs or pubs, and are stereotypically characterised by heavy drinking, raucous behaviour and bawdy entertainment.
Originally and chiefly British, the expression hen do often occurs in association with stag do and variants.
The following, for example, is from Hen and stag dos: the rules, by Kat Williams, editor of Rock n Roll Bride magazine, published in The Guardian (London and Manchester, England) of Saturday 22nd June 2024 [News section: page 3, column 4]:
• Set boundaries with the organiser of your hen night or stag do early on. It doesn’t make you a “bridezilla” to tell them what you do and don’t want. If you don’t fancy a night of heavy drinking, matching outfits, penis straws and embarrassing games, that’s OK!
[…]
• Bring back the one-day events! Very few people want (or can afford) a week-long hen do in Ibiza.
These are, in chronological order the earliest occurrences of the expression hen do that I have found:
—Note: In quotations 1, 3 and 9, this expression occurs in relation to Stags and Hens (1978) and Dancin’ Thru the Dark (1990), respectively a stage play and its screen adaptation, both written by the British playwright and screenwriter William Russell (born 1946):
1-: From the column Callboards, published in the Evening Post (Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England) of Saturday 31st January 1987 [Weekend section: page 2, column 2]:
PLAYHOUSE: Stags and Hens. Brookside’s Damon Grant (Simon O’Brien) makes his stage debut in Willy Russell’s comedy about a stag and hen do at the same disco. The language is described as vibrant and raw.
2-: From an interview of the British comedienne Marti Caine (Lynne Denise Shepherd – 1945-1995), published in the Birmingham Evening Mail (Birmingham, West Midlands, England) of Monday 10th August 1987 [page 8, column 3]:
Marti says, discussing her early experience in the clubs: “The workers were a rough school, really a tough school. You had stag ‘dos’ and hen ‘dos’ as well as ordinary mixed, and there were kids running about, drunk most of the time, bingo coming up, pretty waitresses or pretty women flitting about.”
3-: From They call him the housewife’s hero, a portrait of Willy Russell, published in the Evening Express (Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Scotland) of Thursday 1st March 1990 [page 8, column 3]—the following is about Dancin’ Thru the Dark:
The film, a joint BBC/cinema production in which the writer plays a cameo role, opens in the West End and Liverpool on March 2. It’s set in Russell’s home town on the eve of a wedding, when the happy couple accidentally find their stag and hen do’s end up at the same club.
To complicate matters further, the band appearing there is led by an old flame of the bride-to-be. Human emotions can safely be expected to run rampant.
4-: From an advertisement for Kiss-a-Gram, published in the Wellingborough & Rushden Herald & Post (Wellingborough, Northamptonshire, England) of Thursday 5th April 1990 [page 20, column 4]:
Trust the expertise of our guys and girls: Naughty nurses, Stripping French maids and Secretaries, Job applicants, Taxi drivers, Bogus Police and Salvation Army ladies, Waitress’s, Whip-a-grams, Preg-a-grams.
Sexy Sailors, Frisky Firemen, Police and Salvation Army men, Stripping Salesmen, Saucy Vicars, Amazing Apes—you name it Grams (ask about the ‘G’ String Special)
[…]
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HEN & STAG DOs
(if booked together)
5-: From the Evening Herald (Plymouth, Devon, England) of Tuesday 6th October 1992 [page 13, column 1]:
Comic view of nightlife in the 90s
The highly acclaimed comedy play, Bouncers, performed by the MPM theatre company, comes to St Austell Arts Centre next week.
Written by John Godber, the play offers a comic vision of 1990s urban nightlife with stag nights, and hen do’s, drunken crying girls and gallons of booze!
6-: From the following crossword clue, from Tea-break quickie, published in the Daily Mirror (London, England) of Friday 9th October 1992 [page 26, column 4]:
7. A goddess at a hen do? (6)
—Note: The answer to this clue was the name Athena—from the Daily Mirror (London, England) of Saturday 10th October 1992 [page 23, column 2].
7-: From the column Final Word, by Caroline Storah, published in the Liverpool Echo (Liverpool, Merseyside, England) of Tuesday 27th July 1993 [page 30, column 6]:
Stag-geringly bad planning
Behind every successful stag ‘do’ is . . . a good hen—as this weekend has amply proved.
The boys were planning a bash around Blackpool to celebrate a forthcoming marriage.
As ever, it was a last-minute affair: the destination just about settled, guest-list unconfirmed, timings up in the air, where to stay not even thought about.
Compare that to the hens’ ‘do’—and the differences speak volumes.
The girls’ jaunt to York had been masterminded for months. More planning went into the outfits than for a Princess Di trip abroad and everything was settled within days of the engagement ring going on.
8-: From John Ball’s column, published in Luton on Sunday (Luton, Bedfordshire, England) of Sunday 7th November 1993 [page 32, column 5]:
The phrase ‘the perfect gift for the man who has everything’ takes on new relevance. It never occurred to me some people gave each other sex aids for Christmas … at hen and stag dos, maybe; at coming-of-age parties, perhaps. But Christmas?
9-: From the television programmes, published in The Huddersfield Daily Examiner (Huddersfield, Yorkshire, England) of Saturday 18th March 1995 [Weekend section: page 4, column 3]:
DANCIN’ THRU THE DARK
(BBC1) 1989
A Willy Russell masterpiece in which five boys on a stag night and five girls on a hen do end up in the same Liverpool disco where the bride-to-be’s ex-boyfriend just happens to be playing with his group. A simple, fairly predictable story, but well worth a watch.
9.15-10.45pm.
10-: From the Sunday Independent (Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland) of Sunday 26th March 1995 [page 20, column 1]:
Legal eagles unite
So, that romantic old smoothie, Harry Connick Sr, wed his legal lovebird Londa Matherne yesterday close to the spot where he proposed to her last summer. […]
[…]
On Thursday, though, there were the traditional stag and hen ‘dos’. The men whooped it up in a local pub while the ladies stayed closer to home, partying in the Manor.
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