A landlady is hoping to carve her place in the male-dominated micropub industry by vowing only to employ women.

Nicola Werner, from Ramsgate, has made the controversial decision to hire just females at her new venture, The Pub Ramsgate, and she makes no apologies for it.

Instead, she says, she wants to shake off the stereotype that micropubs are "blokey" and make hers a place for everyone.

"It's not that I would call myself a feminist but I'm, let's say, pro-female," she said.

"I said to myself 'this is my pub, I'm going to run it the way I want and I want only women to work here'.

"I want this to be a female-led pub."

Ms Werner says her team, which is currently made up of three women but will eventually be four, agree on most things and understand what's important to them and their customers.

"It's nice to be in an environment where there's no mansplaining, which I had to deal with loads with the builders," said Ms Werner.

"That was interesting; standing up for myself and saying 'thank you, but I know exactly what I want and exactly what I'm doing'."

Despite her decision to go with an all-female staff, Ms Werner says her pub is inclusive.

"Everybody is welcome here - male, female, rich, poor, old, young and everything in between. We're also dog friendly.

"I have the feeling that women tend not to go to micropubs that much because it's a very blokey, older generation thing but I want to show them that micropubs can be great fun."

And Ms Werner - a former winemaker with 29 years' experience in the hospitality industry - says hers is already proving a hit.

"Monday was overwhelmingly busy; every seat was taken, which was amazing," she said.

"Of course the first hour was a bit chaotic because the card reader wasn't working but then once we got that sorted, we smashed it.

"Everyone had a good time, we got lots of positive feedback and they loved the atmosphere and the location."

While Ms Werner’s all-female policy for staff recruitment may be a unique selling point for the pub, it could fall foul of the Equality Act.

David Reid, director of Just Employment Law, said: "The Equality Act 2010 protects individuals from being discriminated against on grounds of their sex.

"It could prove more difficult to justify a rigid recruitment policy that simply rejects male applicants due to their sex..."

"Accordingly, while the plan to have an all-female staffing complement with a view to challenging an industry norm or stereotype may be well intentioned, male job applicants who have applications for employment automatically rejected on grounds of their sex may have recourse under the Equality Act via an employment tribunal.

"It may be possible for an employer to argue that actions such as encouraging one particular sex to apply for roles within a business or providing additional training with a view to addressing a perceived imbalance within the workplace or sector, can be justified as positive action if the steps taken are proportionate to the aim to be achieved.

"However, it could prove more difficult to justify a rigid recruitment policy that simply rejects male applicants due to their sex.

"It could also prove difficult to argue that there is a genuine occupational requirement that employees working in a pub have to be female where male employees could also carry out the work.”

Max Bell - who runs the Bell & Beerling Pubs franchise of which the The Pub Ramsgate is part - says he welcomes Ms Werner's all-female decision.

"Usually it's older gentlemen in micropubs but with this pub there will be leadership from strong women like Nicola," he said.

"It opened last Monday and was a roaring success. There's been a fairly good mix of people in there, which is great."

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