Beer Workplaces Are Failing Women
The Gender Pint Gap: Revisited - Reflection Piece #2 of 3
“To put it bluntly, not only is this a work environment many women find unappealing, it’s also one a lot of women find completely inaccessible.”
PHOTO: Nicci Peet
If you haven’t already seen it, The Gender Pint Gap: Revisited is a brand new report from Dea Latis on women’s relationships with beer in 2024. You should take a look.
It’s a follow-on from the 2018 study, The Gender Pint Gap, and it offers some important reading.
This is the second in a series of three reflection pieces, as I digest the new findings alongside my own experiences and conversations across the beer industry over the last six years.
In this piece I want to take a look at one specific area featured in the new report, and unpick it a little.
For the first time, a set of questions were asked on working in the industry. These were introduced in response to what’s been referred to as the beer industry #MeToo movement, which began in 2021.
55% of women said they have not worked and would never work in the beer industry. This sends a clear message, and here’s the bigger picture as presented in the SIBA Craft Beer Report 2023:
Women are underrepresented in managerial and brewing roles: only 3% of brewers are female, and less than 25% of brewery management positions are held by women.
The beer industry needs to change at its core and let the ones who can deeply and authentically lead this change do so.
Women brewers are still a novelty - to the extent that they are sometimes used in a tokenistic way - but we do need greater representation in this area, so it’s currently a tricky balance. I’ve been aware of women entering brewing via apprenticeship schemes, and we need more case studies out there to share these types of stories, alongside more breweries adopting such schemes to attract women to these key roles.
I’m concerned about unconscious bias in the workplace across the beer industry. Yes, of course ‘the best person for the job’ and all that, but how much of our own bias plays a part in who we deem that to be? Beer is male dominated; as humans we are most comfortable with people who look like us; therefore the recruitment and promotion of white men in beer is a self-fulfilling prophecy. My belief is that we need formal diversity commitments at board level with measures in place to get there. We need to hold ourselves accountable, because it’s all too easy to make excuses and continue to be passive.
There are other issues in beer around the work culture and expectations. Let’s be honest - as it stands, working in UK craft beer is primarily a sport for young, ideally single, men. It can be a difficult industry for those with ‘outside of work’ relationships or caregiving responsibilities, and as women tend to be the primary caregivers in families, the odds of a career in beer are stacked against them. Work-life balance is often deemed a luxury, and sometimes outright looked down on. The employment packages tend to leave a lot to be desired, with below-average wages and ‘free beer’ being a main perk. Part time roles or flexible working, and critical benefits like sick pay and holiday allowance beyond the bare minimum, are few and far between. To put it bluntly, not only is this a work environment many women find unappealing, it’s also one a lot of women find completely inaccessible.
PHOTO: Nicci Peet
A common scenario is that beer attracts younger women into bar and brewery roles (the report states that women aged 18-24 were the biggest percentage working in the beer industry and enjoying it), and then when they are ready for a step up, the opportunities just don’t come for them; the novelty and social appeal wears off, and they become disenfranchised when they realise there’s more to life than their ‘day job’. As a result, beer is missing out on the skills and experience of women who have a passion for the industry, are ready and have the skills to influence, and could really help beer to thrive and evolve.
And I know - good employment packages cost a company money, but there are ways of offering some ‘quick wins’ whilst also clearly stating a commitment that you are working towards more, and showing how in an accountable manner.
The B Corp Way
Something I’ve always been interested in is the potential influence of B Corp on the beer industry. Certified B Corporations, or B Corps, are companies verified by B Lab to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability. Businesses that become B Corps have seen great results across the organisation including motivated employees, increased customer loyalty, higher levels of innovation, and market leadership.
Now, B Corp certification is expensive, and as more and more businesses ‘jump on the bandwagon’ there’s a natural cynicism that develops - is the badge just a front that businesses can hide behind? Is it just a money maker without substance?
Well, there are now a good few beer businesses that are B Corps. If we don’t have the budget or desire to join them, what can the wider industry learn from ‘the B Corp way’? Perhaps one of the more high profile is Lucky Saint. Launched in 2018, they became a certified B Corp in 2022. Today the leadership team is 67% women - including a woman Managing Director - and overall they are at 50:50. Perhaps unsurprisingly then, they have a whole range of work-life policies in place around flexible working, enhanced holiday and more. The result? Alongside a strong and accessible brand, they are building a great culture, and the impact can be seen on the bottom line - Lucky Saint now ranks 4th for the most volume of beer sold behind Heineken 0.0, Peroni 0.0, and Becks AF (Source NIQ), with 180% year-on-year revenue growth since launch, more than 1m pints sold last year, and 7000 pubs and restaurants now selling the beer. This is a case study we should not ignore - regardless of how we feel about B Corp itself.
The B Corp Impact Assessment is the first step in the certification process, and is a free and confidential online tool which measures your company’s impact on its key stakeholders, across supply chain and carbon footprint to your inclusion policies and employee engagement. You need a minimum score of 80 to apply for B Corp but that aside, isn’t is a good thing to be curious about for your business?
Opening Up The Floor
My final point on the workplace data is that I'm concerned about beer cliques - or the beer bubble - and just how open and inclusive we are when attracting new talent. If we only ever talk to ourselves then we become a closed shop, and then how does beer ever become more diverse?
I’ve seen first-hand examples of jobs being offered to ‘mates’ or to people that used to work for this other brewery, or such-and-such’s partner. There aren’t many open platforms that reach beyond the beer bubble to advertise opportunities, and I think this needs to change. Not only for permanent roles either - freelance seems to be a great option for breweries as it tends to be a seasonal industry where buying in specialist skills for busy times or specific projects makes great economic sense (and bypasses the whole elephant in the room around only having a basic employment package).
It also offers the chance for more people to gain valuable experience in the beer industry without the off-putting aspect of low value or inflexible employment contracts looming over them. I’d love to see a much more vibrant and widely-adopted freelance scene across the beer industry and much less of the ‘mate of a mate’ recruitment culture - because let’s face it, that mate is probably another bearded white man.
The industry as a whole needs to review how recruitment happens within their organisation, and what those roles offer. All too often I hear a lack of workplace diversity being dismissed with a ‘well, no women applied’ and that’s just not good enough. We have to think more deeply about why, look to others who are already turning the tide, and be proactive about moving towards the changes we need to make to genuinely attract the very best talent for the job.
Read The Gender Pint Gap: Revisited. It features a 10-point manifesto, offering a practical guide to drive change.
Next in this series - And Another Thing (released Friday 31st May).
This article is a 3-part series. Read part one - We Need To Rethink How We Talk About Beer.