One of man’s great pleasures might be a pint of beer at the local – but an academic has claimed it would never have existed without the entrepreneurial skills of women.

Jane Peyton, 48, and author and historian, said women created beer and for thousands of years it was only they who were allowed to operate breweries and drink beer.

The drink is now almost exclusively marketed to men - with television characters such as Homer Simpson the epitome of the beer-loving male.

Yet Miss Peyton said that up until 200 years ago, beer was considered a food and fell into the remit of women’s work. It was only then that men began drinking it and it became what is considered a very male drink.

Miss Peyton has conducted extensive research into the origins of beer for a new book, and discovered to her surprise that a woman's touch was found on beer throughout the ages.

Nearly 7,000 years ago in Mesopotamia and Sumeria, so important were their skills that they were the only ones allowed to brew the drink or run any taverns.

And in almost all ancient societies beer was also then considered to be a gift from a goddess, never a male God.