Throughout European history, beer brewing was an intrinsic part of the local market place and general diet. Beer was generally safer to drink than water as the fermentation process of the barley killed any unwanted germs, reducing the risk of disease. Today beer is generally associated with men drinking a 6-pack with the boys watching the game on a friday night, but would you believe me if I told you beer was originally a women’s craft?
For the last 7000 years beer brewing has been a women’s craft. It was done at home,created as a calorie and nutrient rich substance which could be consumed safely. Eventually women decided to take their skills to local markets and share their product to make some extra money. In some cases, they were able to completely support themselves.
The women at these markets would transport their beer in large cauldrons and would be seen wearing tall pointed hats and would often be accompanied by cats. Sound familiar? Probably! However these were simply women brewing beer, not witches. The tall pointed hat was worn so their customers could spot them amongst the crowds of the market and the cats were there not to be familiars but to scare mice away from the grain. These were successful women so what happened? Why do we now associate this image not with brewing but with witchcraft?
Well my friend, the answer is where it always is, the patriarchy. You see when the reformation took place stricter gender roles were being preached and enforced. In addition, male brewers saw these women as competition which they wanted to eliminate. They accused these women of witchcraft, using the image of a woman bent over a cauldron in a pointed hat as a jumping point.
Male beer brewers started rumours that instead of beer, the women in pointed hats were brewing wicked potions which would be used to curse and harm people. These rumours took hold and soon no one would buy beer from these women for fear of being cursed. In fact, there were some cities and towns which made it illegal for women to brew beer, for example: Chester England.
While women are now allowed to brew beer it is of note that the top ten brewing companies have men as their CEOs in what was originally a women’s trade. To this day our image of witches are heavily influenced by this sexist image made up to take women down, erasing the history of women in the beer brewing industry. It is incredibly important that we remember this part of women’s history as it is a prime example of men using fear to turn everything from the public to legislation against independent women.
So next time someone dresses up as a “witch” on halloween you can complement their beer brewer costume and we can slowly deconstruct this inaccurate and harmful image of women and witches.
For further reading check out these articles!
A Brief History of Women in Beer
Women used to dominate the beer industry – until the witch accusations started pouring in