The number of women in executive roles in Australia's wine sector is increasing, data from trade body Wine Australia shows.

According to the latest findings, between 2021-2023 the percentage of women in a CEO role in wine sat at 33.7%, a 21 percentage-point hike on statistics from 2007-2013.

This number is 11.7 percentage points higher than the national average of women in CEO positions, which sits at 22%. In the 2007-2013 period, by comparison, the wine industry was “on par” with the country's average of 10-12%.

Speaking on the results, Dr Jeremy Galbreath, author of both studies on women in the Australian wine sector said: “While these results are encouraging, in critical roles such as winemaking and viticulture there is room for improvement."

Australian Grape & Wine’s diversity and equality in wine committee chair, Ali Laslett, also agreed that changes still need to be made "on many fronts, including the gender pay gap".

Women working in winemaking has also gone up 7.9 percentage points on the prior period to 16.7%, Wine Australia said.

The number of women working in viticulture was up 11.5 percentage points to 21.5%, while women in wine marketing saw a 4.9 percentage-point boost to 58.4%.

Broken down by state, Western Australia had the largest percentage of female CEOs in wine in the 2021-2023 period, at 36%. This was followed by New South Wales and Tasmania, both at 34%, Victoria and Queensland at 33% and South Australia with 31%.