How do you judge the quality of a craft beer? According to new research, the sex of the brewer plays an important role in our opinions of the libation. It seems most of us prefer our craft beer to be brewed by a man. Fortunately, the research also offers promising suggestions for eliminating the gender bias in beer brewing as well as in other male-dominated areas.
The Stanford University researchers who conducted the experiment identified two products that they wanted to study, craft beer and cupcakes. The two were chosen because they were identified as equally masculine (craft beer) and feminine (cupcakes). For the beer portion of the study, participants were shown a label from a fictitious craft beer and asked for their perceptions of the beverage, how much they would pay for it, and their thoughts on the quality of the beer. A fictitious brewer's name appeared on the label, and half of the participants were shown a label with a female name and the other half were shown a label with a male name. Otherwise, the labels were identical.
The results? Apparently we think that beer-brewing is a man's job. When participants believed the brewer was female, they reported that they would pay less for the beer, and they had lower expectations of the taste and quality of beer.
The same experiment was repeated for cupcakes, a more feminine product. Participants were given a label that identified the baker’s gender and were asked to rate the overall quality of the cupcake. Male cupcake bakers did not suffer the same fate as the female brewers. In fact, the authors say there was little noticeable difference between the reviews of cupcakes baked by men and those baked by women.
So, when women enter a masculine or male-dominated area, they are penalized. Even when they produce a masculine product like craft beer, their product is penalized. When men jump into traditionally female areas, they and their products do not suffer the same consequences.
Eliminating the bias in brewing and elsewhere
Fortunately, the researchers found some keys to eliminating the bias. The same experiment was repeated, but this time the researchers added a brewing award to the beer label. When the participants were asked about the award-winning beer, the gender bias disappeared. Merely adding an award to the label of the craft beer removed the bias in favor of male brewers.
This is consistent with research that shows that stereotype use is more likely when little information is available about an individual. The same rule seems to apply to beer. When we don't know much about a person (or a beer), our subconscious looks for cues to help us fill in the blanks. Stereotypes are an easy way for our mind to fill in these blanks. An award provides information that the product is a good one, so participants didn't need to rely on stereotypes about who brews good craft beer.
These findings are not limited to female brewers of craft beer. Women in male-dominated fields often complain that they must prove themselves over and over again to be accepted. This study illustrates exactly why they feel this way. Women and their work products are not given the benefit of the doubt, but instead must have undeniably superior credentials in order to gain respect in these fields.
Interestingly, the Stanford study also found that beer aficionados are less likely to allow gender bias to influence their evaluations of female-brewed beer. One of the researchers, Sarah Soule told Stanford Business School Insights, “We find that individuals who have some degree of expertise or who really know about a product tend to focus on its features and don’t care whether it’s manufactured by men or women.”
The bad news for women is of course that in the absence of supporting information, men are deemed superior at stereotypically masculine tasks. Perhaps the slightly better news for women is that when additional information is provided to confirm their expertise, or when women's work is being evaluated by an expert in the field, the gender bias may diminish.
Female brewers take heed. The ultimate route to eliminate this bias is to eliminate the distinction between masculine and feminine tasks. The more female brewers produce fabulous beer, the less craft beer brewing will seem like a particularly masculine pursuit. (Interestingly, in medieval England, brewing was primarily a female task. It wasn’t until brewing became more profitable, that men forced the women out of this profession.) The same goes for trail-blazing women in all male-dominated fields. As more and more women enter these fields, women will likely gain respect without having to win awards.
