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Abstract
This is the first known large-scale study in the literature to examine women in the
wine industry. By investigating the top wine-producing states in Australia and using a unique
database, women across CEO, winemaker, viticulturist, and marketing roles are tracked for the
years 2007-2013, resulting in 16,763 firm year observations. By relying on social identity theory,
a hypothesis is put forth that women’s representation in top roles is actually less than predicted.
The hypothesis is confirmed. A hypothesis is also posited that women in South Australia have
higher representation in top roles than women in any other wine-producing state. The hypothesis
is partially supported. Finally, this study hypothesizes that were a wine firm has a woman CEO,
the likelihood of women representation in the other roles studied increases, which finds support.
The results are discussed, along with future research directions and limitations.