British Guild of Beer Writers makes big diversity strides

The British Guild of Beer Writers has elected a majority female board for the first time in its history and has vowed to make its legislation gender neutral.

The newly-elected board, who gathered at the Guild’s AGM this week, now contains six women and three men, illustrating that women’s voices in the beer sector which has long been a male-led industry, are leading the way.

The motion for the BGBW’s Articles of Association becoming gender neutral was led by British Guild of Beer Writers deputy chair Emmie Harrison-West who has fought for the past two years to get the legislation changed.

Speaking exclusively to the drinks business, beer writer and British Guild of Beer Writers deputy chair Emmie Harrison-West said: “For the first time in the history of the British Guild of Beer Writers, we’ve elected a mostly female board, so now we have twice as many women as there are men on our board of directors, which is absolutely excellent considering we’ve not had that in nearly 40 years of Guild history.”

Harrison-West explained: “I managed to pass a special resolution at the AGM that stated that we changed our legislation to be entirely gender neutral. It is important to make sure that everyone is recognisable in the legislation. The legislation previously constantly stated that our Guild chair was a man. Our board members were constantly referred to as ‘he’ or ‘him’. After lots of chats to charities and LGBTQ+ organisations, we’ve realised that people actually feel very alienated and isolated when the binary is enforced and there’s no room for change there. So we really want to take it a step further and make it neutral.”

During the AGM, as the motion was presented to the board, it was outlined how the wording within the Articles of Association went against government advice on the correct practice of writing legislation.

According to Gov.uk, the correct writing practice for legislation changed back in 2007 – over 15 years ago. Since then, it has been government policy to write legislation in gender-neutral language – forgoing masculine, and gender-specific terms.

As part of the presentation, Harrison-West pointed out that the correct government practice actively recommends avoiding gender-specific pronouns and stated that ‘chair’ is widely used in legislation over ‘chairman’, citing government guidance to show there is “no reason why gender-neutral drafting cannot become the norm”.

Harrison-West highlighted how the adaptation will assist in welcoming more people to the beer sector and writing about it in future, rather than think it is not for them and described how “as a Guild, we hope that we will start to see more non-binary people apply, more LGBTQ+ people apply. We’ve seen more women apply to be in the Guild already, and we want them to feel entirely welcome”.

The plight for people who don’t identify as male in the industry has been a hot topic of late with recent research from Dea Latis showing that women working in beer and drinking beer is stagnating with the sector making backward steps rather than forward ones.

Harrison-West noted: “There still are so many occasions where women and non-binary people and underrepresented communities aren’t represented in advertising, in beer marketing, in just the way beers are even served. And I think it is a small step, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

She reiterated: “It is so archaic and so outdated for any legislation to refer to someone as a ‘man’, and one thing I brought up in the AGM was how the government actually changed their correct writing practice over 15 years ago and recognised that it was not right to call someone a man or to assume a binary gender. But we just weren’t doing that. We were behind the times. Hopefully, by making the AGM neutral, we can start to prove to people that this isn’t just an industry of and for men, it’s not pale, male and stale. Hopefully, we’ll be able to reject the image of the male-centric beer and brewing industry.”

Asking where the missteps have been within the beer sector, Harrison-West stated: “I don’t think there’s been enough of a welcoming environment in these types of spaces for women and non binary people. To exist as a woman in this industry, I feel like we have always had to come armed with trauma or a reason” and admitted: “It’s tiring to constantly get second guessed and to get asked about your education or asked about your experience.”

Harrison-West revealed: “I’ve had some amazing support from the men on the board, who are pioneers of change. But, a lot of the time, it does still fall down to women. Last year, I did bring this motion to the AGM, and it did get contested” and lamented: “That level of contest from heavyweights in the industry was actually quite disheartening.”

As the changes are made, there is however some success that both the Guild and Harrison-West in particular can legitimately celebrate as an achievement. She told db: “This is huge in a Guild that, as an organisation that is often seen to be male centric, such motions can be made. I think it just shows that things are changing. It’s late, but it’s better late than never.”

But, as Harrison-West observed, taking a stand takes its toll and this has been a long road for minorities in the beer industry, thwarted by the pressures of an “archaic” perspective on what is fair and right. She concluded: “The only way that this ends is when this is not a fight anymore. I am very aware, as like a white cis woman, that I do have my privileges, and yet if this is one thing that I can do is to try and make everyone feel accepted and welcomed in this male-centric, narrow industry, then I know it’s been worth it.”