Francine Katz, who was once the vice president for communications at Anheuser-Busch, filed a lawsuit last week accusing the brewery of gender discrimination.

I read about the lawsuit with a certain sense of skepticism. Perhaps that's because I'm a male. Or perhaps I'm less than enthusiastic about most lawsuits because I've been sued a few times myself, never for discriminating against an employee — I've never had an employee — but mostly for libel, slander and invasion of privacy, the sorts of sins one might expect from a guy with a smart mouth and a big megaphone.

At any rate, I do not pretend to come to this lawsuit with an unbiased mind, and Katz would not want me as a juror. In fact, there are probably a lot of guys who ought not sit on this jury. That's because one of her complaints is that the brewery encouraged a "frat party" atmosphere, to which many guys would respond, "It's a brewery!"

In a world without men, there would be no large breweries. There would be a few micro-breweries, and they would make things like diet strawberry ale. Your basic high-caloric lager would not be a big seller.

That is not a value judgment. It's a gender thing. How many guys drink cosmopolitans? Very few. If we were talking about a cosmopolitan factory, and some male employee sued and accused the factory of having the atmosphere of a book club, I'd feel the same way about his lawsuit. It's a cosmopolitan factory!

Many years ago, I covered a trial in federal court in which a couple of brewery execs were convicted of tax evasion involving a kickback scam in which the execs directed brewery business to an advertising and promotions specialist who in turn kicked back to them. But what did he kick back? Not money, but "frat party" stuff — electronic gadgets, tickets to sporting events, even robots that could be programmed to serve beer.

So yes, there was a frat party atmosphere.

August Busch IV became the head of the place, right? That should tell you all you need to know about that.

But let's get to the heart of the matter. In 2002, Katz was promoted to vice president of communications. According to the lawsuit, she received a base salary of $300,000 and she earned a bonus that first year of $200,000. She's 51 now so she would have been 43 or 44 then. There are a lot of people who would like to be discriminated against like that.

But, of course, that's not fair. The lawsuit does not allege that Katz was poorly compensated. It alleges that men were compensated at a higher level. In particular, she received nowhere near the compensation of John Jacobs, the man she replaced as vice president of communications. In his final year in that job, he received a base salary of $605,000 and a bonus of $645,000.

I remember when Jacobs joined the brewery in 1994. He had been head of the Urban League. Officially, he was replacing Mike Roarty, but a lot of brewery-watchers thought he was really being brought in to replace Wayman Smith.

Smith was a former alderman and the vice president of corporate affairs. He served on numerous local boards. He also functioned as the brewery's bagman. That is, if you wanted money from the brewery — and everybody did — you talked to Smith.

Also, Smith possessed the brewery's most visible black face, and he was the only black guy with a big title. As befits a guy who can give other people's money away, Smith was a jocular sort. He was, and is, a smart man, but his public face was a smiling one.

Jacobs was serious from the get-go. His first public statement was this: "My first obligation is to help Anheuser-Busch earn a profit. I don't want anyone to think I will be a civil rights leader from this position."

I never had much contact with anybody in the executive suites at the brewery, but it sure seemed that August Busch III leaned heavily on the advice and judgment of Jacobs. When the big boss trusts your judgment, you're going to be very highly compensated.

So after several years on the job, Jacobs was making some very serious money. Should his replacement expect to match that salary? That's a tough argument to make.

Fortunately for Katz, her attorney, Mary Anne Sedey, is as good as they come, and if anybody can make the argument, she can. Still, as good as Sedey is, I'm sure she'll be hoping for a mostly female jury. Otherwise, the deliberations could take on a frat party atmosphere.