Beer drinking and gender stereotyping in the Balearics

Women taking a beer at a Palma bar. | Jaume Morey

Majorca Daily Bulletin reporterPalma07/03/2020 04:01

Cervezas Ambar is an independent brewery that was founded in Zaragoza in 1900. The company has undertaken a study of beer consumption by women and of attitudes to women drinking beer. One of the findings in the Balearics is that in 53% of cases where a couple order a beer and a soft drink, the waiter will serve the beer to the man, even if the woman had ordered it.

Questionnaires with 1,700 women across Spain were answered. Although 99.2% of respondents agreed that beer "does not understand gender", the results indicate that there are preconceived ideas. In the Balearics, four out of ten women say that when in a group of men and women who have all ordered beer, stronger beers and beer in larger glasses are automatically served to the men.

Some 14% of women in the Balearics have noted that people seem to find it strange that a woman on her own would order a beer. Twenty-eight per cent of women say that when they have ordered an alcohol-free beer, they have been asked if this is because they are pregnant.