Women Working in Wine Industry Pt 1

Women Working in Wine Industry Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. The Wine Glass Ceiling hasn't been broken nearly enough times. That's according to one of Washington's most heralded female winemakers.

Ashley Trout of Walla Walla's Vital Wines and March Cellars says it doesn't make a lot of sense ...

ASHLEY TROUT ... "Yeah, there's a huge, huge discrepancy right now and I'm hoping that discrepancy is going to show itself with results here in the near future between how many students are female and how many winemakers are female. So, if I've got my stats right, I think about 50% of Walla Walla Community College is female, in their Enology and Viticulture Program. So, that's a great number. Then you look at the number of applicants on Wine Jobs Dot Com and it's 20% of the applicants are female. So, between when you've graduated and when you've applied for your first job, that's where we're losing women."

Trout says yes, it's a physical job, but there are ways to successfully overcome those challenges ...

ASHLEY TROUT ... "I wish women would just show up more, and they're not doing it. In my 17 years of working in the industry, I've never once seen a female drive a forklift aside from me and I don't understand what that's all about. Because, if you can't move things that are heavy, go learn how to drive a forklift. And why am I not seeing anybody out there doing that? I don't understand."

Listen tomorrow when Trout tells women why getting your foot in the door isn't as hard as you think, and once you do, why women have certain advantages.

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