Misconduct as Organizational Structure: An Analysis of Gender-Based Violence in the Craft Beer Sector

• In Event: Workplace and Occupational Victimization

Abstract

How do organizations become sites of gender-based violence? Current scholarship shows that masculine organizations systematically disadvantage women and further male domination, but do not investigate sexual violence as a component of organizational structure that maintains unequal hierarchies of gender. The current research offers an analysis of gender-based violence in a notoriously gendered industry: the craft beer sector. This study investigates sexual and gender-based violence in the craft beer industry as a product of both organizational structure and culture. We suggest these elements work to perpetuate male domination that naturalizes and justifies segregation and violence towards women. This argument is supported using qualitative in-depth interviews with craft brewery workers and owners (N=95), which examine women’s experiences of gender-based violence within the industry. We report analyses showing that trajectories into and experiences within the craft brewing industry differ systematically by gender, such that women are subject to career disadvantages and overt violence. This research will contribute to literature on the maintenance of gendered organizations and the perpetuation of gender-based violence within them. Working with community organizations focusing on violence against women, the study will also contribute to practical policy solutions for gender equality within the craft brewing sector.

Authors

• Emma Jennings-Fitz-Gerald, University of Toronto

• Ethan Shapiro, University of Toronto