Three quarters of women working in the wine trade have said that sexism is still a major issue within the industry, according to new research from Curious Vines.

In the Curious Vines Women in Wine report – based on the findings from a first-of-its-kind survey conducted in collaboration with Proof Insights – 78% of the 726 women surveyed said that sexism and gender bias is an issue in the UK wine industry. 

A further 44% of women said they have considered leaving the wine industry because of challenges faced, with one in three reporting harassment during their time in the trade. One in two of those who have experienced harassment were aged between 18 – 34 years old.

In terms of gender bias in industry leadership roles, only 9% said they work for a company with mostly or all women in leadership roles, compared to 68% who said their senior leadership team consists mostly of men. 

Of these respondents, 58% described feeling intimidated by male dominated leadership, while the same percentage also suggested that women in wine are not granted the equal opportunities to progress in their career. 

Speaking of the report findings, Queena Wong, founder of Curious Vines, said the UK wine industry still has “significant work to do to improve the experience of women”.

She continued: “The conclusions from the survey can now be used to kick start conversations for real action to create a new world in wine, where we protect, retain and uplift female resource.”