Unpopular opinion: themed days and months, for example Bourbon Heritage Month, Women’s History Month, International Whiskey Day, and many others, are annoying. Why are we waiting to give successful people, places, whiskeys, or anything else we value a brief, scheduled moment on the calendar? March is coined as Women’s History Month nationwide, but does this actually help shift the needle of progress? Let’s look at the stats.
In July 2023, OurWhisky Foundation surveyed 600 women about their experience in assorted roles across events, operations, productions, offices, and retail in the whiskey industry. A staggering 67 per cent of the respondents said whiskey’s masculine reputation makes their jobs more challenging, citing lack of representation, stereotyping, and unconscious bias as the foremost hurdles.
Last year, Deloitte released the results of its ‘Women raising the bar’ study featuring women respondents who worked in the alcohol beverage industry between October and December 2022. Of those women who responded, only one in 10 believe there has been a significant positive change toward women overall in the last five years.
So, instead of saving this feature for next year’s Women’s History Month, we’re recognizing these five incredible black women in the whiskey space now — and whenever we want. We asked Abisola Whiskey’s Abisola Abidemi, Louisville, Kentucky-based brand strategy and innovation consultant Andrea D Meriwether, spirits educator and Get Spirited Consulting founder Tracie Franklin, Kings County Distillery’s head tour guide Kelci Koonce,
