Women speak out about sexism in the beer industry
A selection of women working in beer revealed that sexism in the sector continues to prevail and why it is everyone’s job to speak up about it. Jessica Mason reports.
For some members of the beer sector, sexism has been much more than an eye roll from a tasteless remark. Back in 2021, former notch brewer Brienne Allan asked via Instagram: “Have you ever experienced sexism in the beer industry?” What followed was an avalanche of stories from individuals revealing that sexism and harassment was rife.
For author, beer writer and certified cicerone Melissa Cole, it has been a constant battle for equality. One where casual degradation had become intertwined with heckled taunts and even sexual abuse.
Speaking to db about her experiences, Cole said: “Having been in the industry so long I have a toilet roll’s worth of sexism anecdotes, from rape and death threats online to comments still to this day under articles I’ve written asking why women are ’telling’ men about beer.”
Cole explained that in the past “there have been aggressive shoves at beer festivals, sustained verbal attacks” and incidents where one brewery owner began “waging a sustained campaign of harassment against me”. There was also the case of “a very high profile man sexually assaulting me early in my career”. How does Cole feel about it all? “I’m so tired,” she confessed and noted that is how this kind of thing makes you feel – like it is a constant “battle”.
Spotting it early
Attic Brew Co brand and business development manager Catherine Webber pointed out how “sexism can manifest in simple things – mansplaining, re-asking the same question to a male colleague, or waiting to be served by a man on the team as well as much more extreme examples.”
This is what makes sexism in beer such a complex topic. There is no one act of sexism, instead, its roots and the ways it plays out become multiple and interwoven.
To shed a little more light on unpicking the issues, Women On Tap CIC founder Rachel Auty described such events as “micro-sexism” which is a kind of gentle undermining that often flies under the radar of male recognition before the words tumble out. She explained that they are “the little comments that come from assumptions that can be shrugged off as ‘harmless’ but all contribute to the bigger picture”.
Micro-sexism
Auty gave the example of how just the other day she had been browsing beers in a fridge and relayed the scene: “Suddenly, a voice came from behind the bar ‘it’s a strong one that one’. ‘Yeah’ I replied, thinking that was exactly what caught my eye about it as an interesting new impy stout. ‘Do you like ’em [strong]?’ That’s the kind of thing that comes from a place of assuming I know little about beer, and more than likely because I am a woman. Would he have said the same to a bloke? Somehow I doubt it.”
Although Auty has admitted that because she works in the beer equality space, she tends to go to places where she is known for this, so counts herself as “one of the lucky ones” as she has “very little to deal with in terms of direct sexism these days”.
She pointed out how hard it is to know how best to flag up these kinds of exchanges. Auty explained: “Micro-sexism can almost be worse, as it’s hard to always call out or even sometimes to notice. It’s the more hidden bit that sits bubbling under the surface and is difficult to address properly, but contributes to persistent harmful assumptions and sexist behaviours.”
She added: “I do know several of my friends and colleagues who are continuing to experience direct sexism in beer spaces on a regular basis, and it makes me feel angry and sick. It’s unbelievable that it still happens.”
Indeed, after Brienne Allan’s simple question the industry has started to take a bit more notice of conduct. After all, many women spoke up and Allan re-shared each and every one of their experiences. But, although this initiated the start of a change for breweries and a way to uphold equality, lately the notion has drifted. For instance, as organisations like Dea Latis flagged, women are still overlooked in the industry. Last year, the British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) reported that just 17% of women hold board positions and only 7% of women are CEOs in the beer industry, while the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) revealed that 30% of brewery employees are women with only 3% of female workers in brewing roles.
Casual disregard
As Auty attested: “Unconscious bias is a big problem for women wanting to progress within most beer settings. You can see the meetings full of men; the decisions all being made by the men; the casual disregard for a woman’s opinions or needs in the office; the new starter who looks like everyone else and was probably ‘a mate of a mate’; the promotion above you that happens to be another white guy. It’s a really, really tough industry to exist in, and even harder if you want to rise up the ranks. Positive action is needed to get women in breweries to anywhere near the advantage a lot of the men automatically have due to the subliminal ‘boys club’ that inevitably exists. Women have to work so much harder to be noticed, listened to, and rewarded in the beer industry.”
To assist in this, initiatives like the Brave Noise beer project began as a way to show that a brewery was committed to “a safe and discrimination-free beer industry”. In order to participate a brewery must have a published code of conduct and commit to it and then brew a beer and donate the proceeds to a nominated charity that helps to move the industry forwards in some way.
Drinks specialist, writer, presenter and drinks judge as well as Fulbrighter and PhD researcher at Technological University Dublin Susan Boyle said that it does occur to her that the battle to be heard is not something she feels she would have experienced had she been a man speaking about the same topics.
Boyle admitted: “If I’m working on something and I can’t work out why someone isn’t listening to me or taking me seriously, it eventually dawns on me that I would probably be having a different experience if I were male.”
For Boyle, sexist attitudes rear their head in all facets of her work. She revealed that, regrettably, “it’s happening everywhere. And that makes me sad, really frustrated, and disappointed”.
How to tackle the issue
According to one individual working in the beer industry (who would prefer to remain anonymous) for things to change, sexism needs to be “exposed” and “shut down” by everyone and not just women alone.
“I think if women have to change their behaviour or attitudes, or create solutions to curb sexist behaviour, it only deals with the symptoms, not the cause,” said the source. But, they observed: “I think a lot of men are equally repulsed by sexist behaviour they witness, but don’t quite know how to deal with it. It’s up to both men and women to recognise, expose and shut down outdated attitudes and behaviour.”
Webber implored: “Women need to speak up and highlight this behaviour – we need to be creating safe spaces and a voice for women to feel that they can speak up – too often these concerns are dismissed as ‘banter’ or ‘a bit of fun’. We need to be acknowledging that these behaviours are making women uncomfortable and deterring them from entering the industry. We need everyone to be saying we don’t accept this and won’t tolerate it in our venue/workplace.”
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Speaking up
“Where I’ve experienced sexist behaviour it only made me more determined to not tolerate it. I feel it makes my position stronger rather than weaker,” explained one source. Giving an example of where sexism arose, they explained how they had been “asked to take notes in meetings” where they were “the only woman present, even though I’m more senior and experienced than some of the other attendees”. Tackling this head on, they said: “I’ve made my case that I can’t contribute fully to the meeting if I’m tied up doing the minutes. By doing this, I’ve exposed the person who asked me to do this and made them feel in the minority in front of their peers.”
One of the connecting challenges associated with these kinds of situations is that, according to Cole, a lot of the time men are somewhat blind to there being any offensive caused by the inequality. And, in some cases, when it is not them, but they are still observing the situation, the paucity of men calling out sexist behaviour towards women is even slimmer.
Not only women’s responsibility
By way of an example, Cole revealed: “The largest common denominator in all of this is that men rarely stood up or stepped in for me, it’s nearly always women.” This, Cole insisted, has to change because women feel like it is their own issue singularly creates a sense of it being only seen as wrong in the eyes of women. Or, essentially, their ‘problem’ alone.
Mulling this, Webber explained: “I think that it’s easy to say that women need to suggest solutions – the simple thing is to push this back to women to solve a problem they’ve not created.” And agreed: “ I think it needs to be an industry wide approach”.
Neptune Brewery owner Julie O’Grady offered another take on this and reminded that women are, however, well-placed to offer guidance to assist in explaining how offensive certain behaviours can be.
O’Grady said: “I’d rather be asked to help enable people to conduct themselves in the right manner than not.”
Auty echoed this, but reiterated how it should not be something women face alone, but alongside allies. She insisted: “We are the ones with the lived experience, so our input is vital. However, we need active allies who are authentic who can use their platforms and networks to speak up and open doors.”
Alienation and emasculation
Beer has, after all, historically, been marketed by men to men and the pub space has evolved from the same roots.
Last year, in the Gender Pint Gap: Revisited report by Dea Latis, the YouGov data showed how even though beer advertising had technically reverted from sexism and overt masculinity, it still “doesn’t resonate” with women.
One perspective on this that was drawn from the report also cited American academic Helana Darwin who had suggested that brand owners were reluctant to position beer as a gender-neutral product for fear it could threaten, demasculinise and alienate their core consumers: men.
Cole said: “I cannot stress enough that feminism raises everyone up but it needs to be intersectional, which is something I know I still have work to do on, and it can’t happen without everyone pulling together, that means men too.”
Calling it out
Auty told db that there is hope and there are still things we can all do. She explained: “Some of the easiest ways to curb sexist behaviour are obvious – call people out on it. This isn’t just the job of the woman, who will often feel intimidated, scared, at risk. Women need support. If this is your mates, your colleagues, your team, you absolutely have to call it out. Efforts to create inclusive workplace cultures and safe drinking spaces set the scene for a zero tolerance of sexism or any other form of discrimination at work. Everyone should be investing in building that with measures and codes of conduct and policies to set a process and make the message clear. One small thing can’t fix it, but everything helps.”
She insisted: “We all have to do the work, but it can’t always be led by women. It’s been an exhausting few years in this fight for so many women across the beer industry and as a result many have burned out, walked out of jobs which has left them financially and socially vulnerable, or are planning to strategically step away. These women are incredible talents that once loved the industry and the scene. It’s a terrible loss for beer and a harmful image for the industry.”
Boyle acknowledged how she will always “deeply admire the women in the beer industry who are not scared to speak out, who are vocal, and demand that things improve for everyone”.
Looking to the future
Will sexist attitudes prevail into 2026? As Auty pointed out, things are very bad everywhere right now. She alluded to the reminder that “there are external political and social forces at play that are making this world even harder to live in for women, people of colour, those who are LGBTQ+, and so many others” and admitted that it is “really worrying”.
She explained: “I like to think that the beer industry is a close and connected community, and more people within it will want to respond to this rising hate by becoming more inclusive and showing everyone that the beer space is a space where everyone should feel welcome and safe. That’s the right thing to do.”
Auty also stated: “This rise of hate makes me stronger – we won’t go away. Inclusion is key to the future wellbeing of an industry that is struggling”.
But this is not a lone fight, just a long one. As O’Grady indicated: “We have to remain positive that change is happening and will continue to do so. I do believe we are slowly getting there, however it’ll take time.”
Every debate reinstates fresh perspectives
This isn’t the end of the road, in fact, women may have only just heard the starting pistol fired before what will be a fraught journey. But there are still reasons to remain positive. Every debate reinstates discussion and fresh perspectives on routes towards better equality. Talking about the conundrum re-raises it to the forefront of conversation. And it gets people thinking about how we all treat one another and also, what is fair, equitable and empathetic.
Pinpointing this exactly, Boyle illustrates how each step forwards is one that shifts the dial a little further towards “better”. She added: “Sexism in beer is an evolving conversation, and because this topic continues to be discussed, highlighting this issue moves things forward. And yes, there is a way to go, work to do, and beer should be better, but really, everywhere should be better.”
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