Which spirits companies are the most female-friendly?

Forbes has released its list of the World’s Top Companies for Women, and two spirits multinationals have made the cut.

Less than half of women worldwide (47%) are in the labour force, compared to 72% of men, according to the International Labour Organisation, and women tend to work in lower quality jobs than their male counterparts.

Drinks companies face their own challenges when it comes to gender. A survey by OurWhisky Foundation release in August found that a third of women working in whisky worldwide have been inappropriately touched, and 87% feel they experience more challenges in the workplace than their male colleagues.

Another UK-based survey found that almost half (44%) of women working in wine have considered leaving the industry because of gender-based challenges.

Forbes has teamed up with market research firm Statista to rank the World’s Top Companies For Women 2023, coming up with a list based on three different scores.

Approximately 70,000 women in 37 countries took part in multiple globally administered independent surveys, which were designed to evaluate the top companies for women across multinational corporations. The list was decided via a combination of the company’s:

Employer Brand Score: Women were asked to rate how their employer performs across a series of gender-related topics. In addition, they were asked to rate their overall willingness to recommend their employer and assess them across other, more general, workplace satisfaction questions. Women were also prompted to evaluate other employers in their respective industries that stand out either positively or negatively.

Public Opinion Score: A women-only public opinion survey measured how women perceive companies in terms of gender equality.

Leadership Score: Objective criteria (i.e., the presence of a female CEO and the share of board/executive committee positions filled by women) were gathered via extensive desk research.

Of the spirits multinationals which were involved in the study, Bacardi and Diageo were named in the list.

UK-based Diageo ranked 215th in the list, while Bacardi, the largest privately held, family-owned spirits company in the world, based in Bermuda, came 329th out of the 400 companies which were included in the ranking.

The Maryland Automobile Insurance Fund (MAIF) was top of the list across all industries, and cosmetics giant The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. came second.