NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

When men were served alcohol in cans bearing slogans such as “consent can’t come after you do” and “nipples are nipples” at a recent event in Adelaide, their reaction was as good as the brewers could have hoped for.

The nine women behind the start-up brewing company Sparkke Change Beverage Co aim to start conversations by wrapping political messages around drinks, then pouring them right into the masculine heartland of pubs, clubs and bars.

“We are disrupting and infiltrating the Aussie beer culture, which is a white, male-dominated space where there are a lot of decision makers,” says one of the co-owners of Sparkke, Sarah Barrable-Tishauer. The Canadian former actor provides marketing expertise to the Australian social enterprise.

Sparkke is one of a wave of social enterprises specifically aimed at empowering women. Whether it’s beer, fashion or fabric, these companies want to use business to start conversations around feminist issues.