Beer is for everyone.

Beer has had a long history in modern times of being male-dominated, boorish, sexist, exclusionary, and sorely lacking in diversity. Women continue to fight an uphill battle to be welcomed, included, considered and respected.

We have made great strides in beer around the world – many more women own, run and work in breweries, brewing beer, serving beer, and teaching beer. They drink beer. They write about beer. They photograph beer. They talk about beer. They share beer. They love beer.

Today saw a brewery make a serious misstep posting marketing copy that objectified and sexualised women, and many were fairly bothered by it. They posted an apology and removed the post, but they have allowed post comments to go unmoderated and uncontested, where sexism continues to reign with women being called c*nts & cows, told the beer in question “isn’t for them” if they don’t like the sexualisation of women, and generally dismissed for being female because “they don’t like beer.”

This bullshit is insidious and pervasive, and everyone in beer needs to be better than this. We are better than our past, than our stereotypes, than our gender bias and than our sexism. Beer can – and should – be welcoming, inclusive, and diverse. Breweries as businesses should be leading the way, not just because it’s right, but because it’s also good business. We as beer consumers, fans, photographers, writers, drinkers, servers, reps, retailers and brewers should call out sexism wherever and whenever we see it, and work hard to make beer a truly inclusive industry, profession and hobby.

Let’s be better.

Beer is for everyone.