A ten-year follow-up study has revealed some good news for women in the Australian grape and wine sector, with an increase of female representation in all assessed areas.
A new report, Women in the Australian wine sector: How have the numbers changed in CEO, winemaking, viticulture, and marketing roles since 2013?, has been conducted by Dr Jeremy Galbreath of Strateos Group. It is an update of a study that Galbreath published in 2015, which used data from 2007-2013 to examine the gender balance of key roles in the Australian grape and wine industry.
The report was informed by data from the Australian and New Zealand Wine Industry Directory by Winetitles Media. The company provided special-order databases for the study that included information from the directory, as well as other fields and details not listed elsewhere. The current study used the same methodology as the original study to determine the composition of roles, using data from 2021–2023.
Funded by Wine Australia, the gender distribution of the wine sector’s CEO, winemaking, viticulture and marketing roles were re-examined, and found to have improved since the initial report.
Source: Wine Australia
Galbreath said that the report highlights particularly strong evidence of progression of women in CEO roles compared to the 2007–2013 averages.
“A decade ago, only around 13 per cent of women held CEO roles in the Australian grape and wine sector, which was on par with the average for women CEOs in Australia at that time of around 10–12 per cent. The latest data indicates that the Australian grape and wine community has increased representation of women in CEO roles to 33.7 per cent, surpassing the estimated Australian average of 22 per cent.”
“The number of women in winemaking and viticulturist roles have shown good increases as well, while the number of women in marketing roles remains relatively steady. While these results are encouraging, in critical roles such as winemaking and viticulture there is room for improvement.”
Wine Australia is working with Australian Grape & Wine’s Diversity, Equality and Inclusion in Wine Committee to identify existing resources, gaps and opportunities to help the Australian grape and wine sector implement and demonstrate equity and inclusion outcomes.
Wine Australia general manager Research and Innovation, Dr Liz Waters, said evidence shows that women in the sector need sustained support to help achieve their career aspirations, particularly in senior and leadership positions.
“Since the original report was released, significant efforts have been made by many in the sector to promote the achievements of women and raise awareness of the importance of diversity, equality and inclusion in our sector.
“This new report shows an improvement in our gender representation over the past decade, but there is more that can be done and it remains an ongoing priority, as identified by the sector in consultations for the One Grape & Wine Sector Plan.”
In the report, Galbreath makes several recommendations to keep improving the share of roles held by women in the Australian grape and wine sector, including pay equality, business ownership, regional women’s networks, mentorship and ‘male champions’, data reporting graduate career pathways, and consideration of benchmarks to aim for greater share of women in underrepresented roles.
Australian Grape & Wine’s Diversity and Equality in Wine Committee chair, Ali Laslett, said that while the organisation was happy to see a shift in these results, there is still some way to go on many fronts, including the gender pay gap.
"This research provides us with significant evidence over a 10-year period and we are grateful to Dr Galbreath for conducting this very important research for us again.”
The report can be viewed and downloaded from wineaustralia.com.
