Page 21 - Food & Drink magazine June 2021

WOMEN IN INDUSTRY
✷ #METOO MOMENT
CRAFT BREWING’S MOMENT OF RECKONING
In the US last month, Brienne Allan, the production manager for a craft brewery had enough of sexist comments in her workplace. She called on women in the brewing industry to share their stories of sexism and harassment and what followed was an outpouring of hundreds of accounts detailing sexist comments, harassment, assaults and toxic work environments.
In Australia, the Independent Brewers Association put out a statement saying it was “well aware” of the issues raised in the US and in Australia.
“The IBA takes these issues very seriously and we pledge to you that we will do everything in our power to be part of the solution.”
The association is looking to develop practical resources to better support the industry.
Prancing Pony Brewery CEO and
co-founder Corinna Steeb said it has a very clear position on discrimination and harassment.
“Our brewery is a female-led brewery. I have worked in the craft beer industry for nearly ten years, plus thirty-five years prior to that in many others. In my working life, I have been subjected to disrespect, racists comments, discriminatory behaviour, being talked over and/or subjected to sexual harassment, in particularly during my younger years and during times when I was in subordinate positions,” Steeb says.
Two Birds Brewing founder Jayne Lewis tells online craft brewing magazine The Crafty Pint: “You were just accustomed to getting off colour comments from people inside and outside the industry – from punters at beer festivals and also from other members of the industry. It was so commonplace it
was kind of just accepted; it was the price you had to pay being the minority in the industry.
“I’m pretty bloody-minded and old school so I wouldn’t have been put off, but it’s definitely a contributing factor to starting something like Pink Boots Society – to have this united front, to feel you had people who got what you were going through.”
Steeb says, “In my opinion, discrimination, inequalities, misogynist behaviour, or sexual harassment is not a craft beer specific issue rather, a general issue, stemming from a lack of respect, lack of education and understanding and on a corporate level, lack of leadership.”
Steeb says all business owners have a duty of care to create a
Corinna Steeb, Prancing Pony Brewing
culture of safety, inclusion, and equity and, regardless of the size of their business, to adopt a modern and inclusive workplace culture by providing guidance, resources, education, and training to ensure the health and wellbeing of employees.
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