Decanter World Wine AwardsCalifornia female winemakers facing 'glass ceiling': Study
- Friday 26 August 2011
The project, based on an survey of over 3,200 California wineries, lists women-run wineries in a new website, www.womenwinemakers.com.
The report's authors found that the number of female lead winemakers varied significantly across the region, ranging from under 5% in southern California to over 12% in Sonoma and Napa.
Study co-author Lucia Albino Gilbert suggested that ‘visibility’ engendered by winemakers like Heidi Bartlett, Helen Turley, Mia Klein and Celia Welch could increase opportunities for other well-qualified women.
This was ‘important factor in changing views of women’s abilities’ in a male-dominated industry, Gilbert told Decanter.com.
In spite of the wide gap between men and women in lead winemaking positions, Gilbert notes ‘a positive trend in the U.S.’ and she expects the overall percentage of women in lead winemaking roles to reach ‘15-20% in the next few years, especially in Napa and Sonoma.’
Although no data was collected outside California, Gilbert ‘hypothesises’ that the glass ceiling would be ‘similar in the states of Oregon and Washington, but lower in states such as Texas and in countries like France and Italy.’
Have your say!
Cyr
October 12 18:24
@ Ryan... Hmmm, seems like you are operating from within a vevry opaque 'gender profiling' box. Obviously you haven't met Anne Vawter, Heidi Barrett or Celia Welch. Make an effort to get to know these wacky women winemakers and you will have a rollicking good time.
Kathy
October 10 17:35
Original study:
Gilbert, L. A. (2011, June). Women winemakers make some progress in a male-dominated field . Poster session presented at the meeting of the American Psychological Society, Washington, DC; http://www.womenwinemakers.com/
Tom Collins
August 31 01:07
Data appears skewed unfairly. Male Owner / Winemakers and Female Owner / Winemakers Should be removed from the data set along with Male / Female team winemakers that they did remove. This would show the true employed winemaker Status, male or female. Some ava's are heavily owner / winemaker. For instance until last year half of the Nevada County portion of the Sierra foothills employed winemakers was female. However only 1/20th of the winemakers total were female.
Ryan C
August 30 17:07
Male American winemakers achieve more when they are fun and eccentric. Women winemakers are just the opposite. Maybe it is their own glass ceiling.