Women now make up 31 per cent of CEOs, 16 per cent of winemakers, 24 per cent of viticulturists and 59 per cent of marketers in the South Australian wine industry, according to the report.

Penned by Dr Jeremy Galbreath of Strateos Group and funded by Wine Australia, the report has found an increase in women in key roles within the grape and winemaking sectors across the country.

The report, ‘Women in the Australian wine sector: How have the numbers changed in CEO, winemaking, viticulture, and marketing roles since 2013?’, compares the gender composition across the wine and grape industry in Galbreath’s 2021-2023 study to his 2007-2013 study.

The comparison of the two studies shows an increase in the number of women in all roles studied across the past decade.

The largest growth role nationally has been for women in CEO positions, with numbers almost tripling.

In South Australia, the number of women in CEO positions rose from 11.5 per cent in the 2007-2013 study to 31 per cent: an increase of 19.5 per cent.

“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 to 12 per cent,” Galbreath said.

“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.”

Most states have seen similar growth to South Australia, with women in New South Wales holding 62.6 per cent of all marketing roles in the state – the highest rate of women in wine in any role nationally.

Men still dominate the role of winemakers with women making up just 16.7 per cent, but that is nearly double the 8.8 per cent in the 2007-2013 report.

“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,” Galbreth said.

“While these results are encouraging, in critical roles such as winemaking and viticulture there is room for improvement.”

Wine Australia General Manager of Research and Innovation Dr Liz Waters said while significant efforts had been made since the first report, more work needed to be done to achieve equality across the industry.

Wine Australia is working with the Australian Grape & Wine’s Diversity, Equality & Inclusion in Wine Committee to identify and tackle inequalities, issues and opportunities within the sector to create equal and inclusive outcomes.

“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,” she said.

To help the number of women in wine to continue to grow, Galbreath identifies multiple barriers and makes multiple recommendations on topics such as pay equality, business ownership, regional women’s networks and mentorship.

The latest reports from the ATO suggest that on average women are making $14,000 less than men as winemakers and $18,500 less as viticulturists and grapegrowers.

Galbreath recommends wineries consider “pay that demonstrates equality” to lift the number of women in the industry.