Women Once Totally Dominated The Beer And Brewery Industry

Society dubs some colorful cocktails "feminine," while other drinks like whiskey or beer are considered more "masculine." Stereotypes aside, we might want to start thinking of all drinks as being at least partly feminine, as women were the very first brewers of drinks like beer, sake, and mead. Theresa McCulla, the curator of the American Brewing History Initiative at the Smithsonian's National Museum, said it best to Wine Enthusiast: "Women absolutely have, in all societies, throughout world history, been primarily responsible for brewing beer."

While the history of beer is as hazy as some IPAs, most attribute its creation to the Sumerians. Ancient tablets from the time confirm that women were the drink's original brewers, and imbibers often toasted Ninkasi, the goddess of beer, when drinking, as they believed she was responsible for beer's mind-altering effects. (She also came before the widely celebrated god of wine, Dionysus.) Ancient Mesopotamian law gave total jurisdiction over brewing beer exclusively to women.

From then on, brewing beer was a common domestic task for women across the world, as it helped make filling meals and preserved excess grain. Women opened taverns, and later in history, a German woman even became the first to put hops in beer, transforming the drink from a perishable luxury to the widely commercialized and consumed drink it is today (not to mention that hops make beer deliciously bitter and complex). So, what happened?

When beer became profitable in the 1500s, women "brewsters" were pushed out, painted not as creators of a delicious, hoppy elixir, but as witches mixing up potions in a bubbling cauldron. Since then, breweries have been dominated by men. Even the act of drinking alcohol became a man's game — in Ancient Rome, wealthy men could drink, but women were only allotted a weak, sweet take on wine known as passum. Women were considered property, so why should they have to let loose?

Thousands of years later, the beer industry is still male-dominated. Male brewery owners outnumber women three to one, and only 7.5% of brewers are women (via Brewers Association). In a country where women make up 51% of the population, the numbers don't add up. Luckily, as Tara Nurin, the beer and spirits contributor for Forbes, shared with Wine Enthusiast, "We are seeing women involved in beer at levels that haven't been seen since colonial times."

While women were integral in the production and evolution of beer, their impact goes beyond the beverage. We have women to thank for the invention of bars, the improvement of Champagne, and the popularizing of single malt scotch, just to name a few things. So, the next time you pick up a lager or a pilsner (they are different) or an effervescent Champagne, don't forget to toast to women like Hildegard von Bingen (who was likely the first to describe hops scientifically) and Barbe Nicole Ponsardin Clicquot (who created the first known vintage Champagne) for making the experience possible.