The rise and rise of women

Women have been the backbone of the pub trade for centuries. Their husbands and partners may have been the name over the door and played the public-facing role of host, but mostly it's been strong, no-nonsense women who've run the show and called the shots in their pubs. As in most domestic homes over the ages, however much male chauvinsim prevailed at large, the female of the species has generally been more determined, focused and grounded than the male.

Yet that powerful personal aura was never reflected in the corridors of pub power. Brewers have been a bastion of male authority throughout the trade's history, a few honourable exceptions aside.

Until now, that is. For slowly, but with increasing speed, women are exercising real influence over the trade. In the way pubs are designed, in what they sell, in how they reach out to new customers, in how they reinvent themselves, women executives are making their indelible mark on the face of the trade.

You only have to glance at the list of 30 senior women we have assembled in this week's special women's issue to see how the highest levels of influence are being infiltrated. And, in truth, although they have had to work incredibly hard to reach their positions of eminence, many women find they are having the door held open for them by men these days, and are invited in to the previously forbidden inner circles.

Men, not always the simple creatures some women make them out to be, have realised that pubs need to alter fast if they're to survive the radical social changes being played out in Britain today. Women are making the decisions for themselves and their families in all walks of life. So it makes sense for women to help the trade capitalise on these trends.

Since the smoking ban, women have become the prime target customer, indeed almost the main hope for the future of the trade. The quicker they can be persuaded to see pubs as relevant to their lifestyles, the quicker better times will return. And who better to understand what women want than women pub executives.

Orchid, Peach, Punch, Greene King and Coors are leaders among the companies who are actively promoting women to roles of real significance. Others will follow when they see how successfully these companies win business from them.

The next few years must see enormous changes in the way pubs position their business. Most pubs will have to re-invent themselves if they're to keep up with social change. It's going to be vital that more and more women come in to the trade and are given greater responsibility.

The role models we present today should serve as suitable inspiration for a new generation of creative, inspiring and powerful women to join them.