Glass Ceiling In the Tree Fruit And Wine Industry

Glass Ceiling In the Tree Fruit And Wine Industry

Susan Allen
Susan Allen
With the Fruit Grower Report I'm Susan Allen. I know of a number of women winemakers in the Northwest, but not so many orchards or vineyard managers. So I asked Keely Kopetz general manager of a Wy'East Winery in Hood River herself a millennial if she thought there was a glass ceiling for young women in this industry.

KOPETZ: , You know I thin it is different for women, I'm not a winemaker, I help make some of thee decisions on wine making, but I don't actually make the wine myself. I think that yea there is a lot of room for growth being a woman in a business situation. We are a small family ownedd and operated winery , my mom and dad and I work very close with one another to make sure things are done correctly and the wine takes good and it's selling. As time is going on I am also calling more of the shots and getting more of an ownership role, it's fun ....but it can also be intimidating because I think a lot of the wine industry is dominated and owned by a lot of men but there is definatley some some younger women and room to grow for all of us.

As Kay Simon, Washington's state first woman winemaker once said. "Traditionally women didn't get beyond the lab,". A lot has changed since 1977 when Simon took the job as assistant winemaker at Chateau Ste. Michelle and was promoted to red winemaker in 1979. By 1983 she founded Chinook Wines in Prosser with her husband .

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