Fresh Cup Magazine

They Can Do It!
How Women Are Rebuilding Our Industry
By Lisa Hoashi
Illustration by Chad Crowe

Her lips forming an "O" beneath arched eyebrows, a woman stares with surprise from a 1950s-era advertisement for Chock full o'Nuts. An overturned cup of coffee perches atop her coifed hairdo and a dribble of coffee runs down her forehead. "Men!" the caption implores, "Don't let it come to this! Win your fight for a decent cup of coffee without losing your temper!" The slogan at the bottom of the page adds, "Every man's right, every wife's duty." With these first coffee marketing campaigns, advertisers' reliance on exploiting the then typical housewife's duties in order to sell a product was questionable but also the societal norm. These early coffee advertisements are a reminder that it wasn't so long ago that the coffee business was without question a man's world. But the climate of standard industry has shifted for women in these past 50 years, and significantly so for those in specialty coffee. Today they are presidents and owners. They are importers, roasters and retailers. And varied and distinct as their struggles have been, so are their stories of success and plans for the future.
   A majority of these pioneering women point to Erna Knutsen-who started importing coffee 1970s and personally coined the phrase "specialty coffee"-as the female professional who first broke that archaic mold in the coffee industry. To countless women working in specialty coffee today, Knutsen was the first to inspire them.
   When coffee advertising campaigns began reaching nationwide audiences in the early 1900s, they used female models to target the primarily female buying demographic. Around the same time, women emerged as the faces of such campaigns, a few enterprising women found ways to enter into the coffee business as professionals. Helen Landsdowne of the J. Walter Thompson Agency wrote the copy for Yuban's highly successful New York campaign in 1913-though her boss, Stanley Resor, took the credit. Alice Foote MacDougall was one of the first women to break into coffee retailing, an exceptional rarity in her time. In 1907, MacDougall's husband died, leaving her with three children and little money. Needing to find some way to support her family, MacDougall decided to take up her husband's trade of importing coffee. She leased an office in New York City, and despite much discouragement from her male colleagues, eventually built a thriving business. She learned how to buy, blend, cup, and advertise. MacDougall branched out in 1919 by opening a shop in Grand Central Station. Initially, she sold only whole beans, but soon she expanded to by-the-cup sales. By 1928, MacDougall owned five coffee shops, employed 700 people, served 6000 customers a day, and grossed two million dollars a year.
   As was the case in most industries during World War II, women were encouraged to fill the roles in the coffee business left by men signing into military service. They not only kept their menial factory jobs, but took up artisan jobs such as roasting. In 1940, Hills Brothers allowed women into the cupping rooms for the first time.
   Knutsen can testify, however, that these early women tasters were an exception. Knutsen entered into the business in 1968 as a private secretary to Bert Fullmer at B.C. Ireland, a coffee and spice importer. Though she was new to the business, Knutsen's interest in becoming a buyer of high-quality coffee-and developing a taste for it-grew rapidly. "I asked my boss about the coffee they were tasting and if I could cup, and the men revolted," recalls Knutsen of her early experience. "'You aren't coming into this cupping room,' they said. It was terrible. So my boss said, 'Why don't you take it easy and just call people. You don't need to know that much about coffee.'" But Knutsen's curiosity wasn't sated that easily. After five years of persistence, she was finally allowed to cup with her colleagues. Her success in coffee sales steadily improved, and less that 12 years later, she bought B.C. Ireland for herself. The first order of business was to change the name to-what else?-Knutsen's Coffees.
   "It was a different world," Knutsen says, "and it still is in some ways. It was not a fun time, but what the hell, I have a sense of humor and I had a good time." For the most part, she didn't really think about being one of the only women in the industry during the 1960s. As for her own status as an exception to the rule, she says, "I just took it for granted, and just made pals of everyone who was in the business." Her success, she emphasizes, has not been because she acted like a man. "Making friends in the business-that's what's important-for people to know you privately and professionally, and trust you."

As Business Owners
While the coffee business has been traditionally a man's world, Julie McGuire, owner of Zanzibar's Coffee Adventure in Des Moines, Iowa, notes the rapid evolution of the specialty coffee industry as a whole, suddenly providing women with a natural business fit. "[With] the explosion of the coffeehouse in the U.S. in the last 10 years, women have been able to take hold," she says. "It was great to see that this was an industry that was welcoming to women, even though it was traditionally male-dominated." Becky McKinnon, president of Timothy's World Coffee, adds, "Women have always had the opportunity to open up retail stores. In importing, there haven't been so many opportunities." She agrees, however, that by comparison, the coffee industry has been more amicable to women than others. "Specialty coffee has been more hospitable maybe because businesses have been smaller, and maybe smaller businesses are better for and to women."
   McGuire believes that women have had success opening up their own shops for two primary reasons. "One, at my level, as a small shop, it's somewhat of a food experience," McGuire says. "It's an area where traditionally, women are welcomed and well-received. [And] you're creating a space. One of my major roles is being hostess, and that's a role that many women have grown up [enacting]." And although the coffee business is detailed, she says it doesn't have to be intimidating. Once a coffee retail business has been established, it's easier to muster the confidence to move into buying your own green beans and learning to roast.
   Part of Knutsen's challenge as a business owner in the late 1970s was finding financiers who were willing to back her when times got tough. Likewise, in the late 1980s, McGuire says that her primary difficulty was finding a bank to finance her coffee shop. That difficulty arose "in part because I was a woman, part because I was young, and partially because the climate here in Des Moines is not very creative," she says. "When I first started pursuing money from the banks there was not a single local business serving coffee as its primary source of income." Women today may not have as much difficulty finding financing, she says, because back when she was approaching banks, she was not only asking for money but trying to sell a concept, as well. McGuire feels that women opening coffeehouses these days have it easier because the concept has been justified. "I think that being a woman wouldn't be an issue, though gender does continue to be a challenge," says McGuire. "I don't think that we are in a climate that has established equality. Women approach things differently, and it creates an additional challenge."
   Since Jennifer Stone, owner of Chattanooga, Tenn.-based Stone Cup Roasting Company, opened the first of her two coffeehouses in 1997, she has found she runs her business differently than a man would. An initial lesson she learned was how to manage her role in the business in terms of time, money and energy. "I see so many women who start coffee shops and have a harder time delegating," she says. "I think women are more perfectionistic, because that's a role we have in the household." Stone had to learn that she couldn't do everything, and so she made adjustments. She realized that as long her customers received a good product, she could consider herself victorious.

As Roasters and Importers
Before taking her current position as coffee manager at Green Mountain Coffee Roasters in Waterbury, Vt., Lindsey Bolger was the master roaster at Batdorf & Bronson Coffee Roasters, in Olympia, Wash., for more than 10 years. There, she was trained to roast by Dick Batdorf. The company had no political agenda whatsoever, she says. Batdorf took Bolger on as an apprentice in 1988 for the simple reason that she had shown interest. "Women at Batdorf & Bronson weren't excluded from the opportunity to be part of the business we were developing," she says, referring to the historically-progressive nature of both the company and the local community as a whole. "There was no doubt that women could go into positions traditionally held by men."
   It was the other people-electricians, plumbers, delivery workers, customers-visiting her workplace who could sometimes make Bolger self-conscious. "I remember schlepping 15-pound bags of coffee around, and men would come to help me," she laughs. "Clearly, they were uncomfortable seeing a woman doing that."
   Bolger's experiences over the course of her long, much celebrated career translates to the wise perspective she offers women entering the industry today. "I wouldn't start with the assumption that there will be barriers to entry, or limited opportunities to access mentors," she says. "Our industry just isn't structured that way. To assume that it is would limit the opportunity to any number of influences. And if there are questions as to perceptions versus reality, talk to other women and get those cleared up."
   One of the first "roast mistresses" of the West Coast was Colleen Crosby, co-owner of the Santa Cruz Coffee Roasting Company in California. In the 25 years she has worked as a coffee professional, Crosby has enjoyed the unique experience of watching her daughter take up her mother's legacy. Attending conventions and conferences Crosby's daughter met women known industry-wide as experts. Crosby's daughter has traveled to origin, to Nicaragua and other countries, seeing women succeed there as well, as growers. "The image that exists for her now," Crosby says of her daughter, "is that women are a part of it. She sees a role model. She can see herself as the owner of a business." When Crosby first entered the specialty coffee industry in the 1970s, she was aware of only one role model for women like herself, and that was Knutsen. "Now there are a variety of role models, not only in the United States, but outside of the U.S. So [my daughter] can dream whatever dream she wants to for herself in the coffee industry."
   Like many women whose business relies on a worldwide chain of people, Crosby is enormously grateful that there is an international community of like-minded women. Speaking generally, she says, it is important to be aware of "the unique contribution any woman can make to the change and improvement of an industry. It's just the same for all the cultures involved in the coffee industry; they have all this uniqueness, this wisdom, that can contribute to making a better industry. And just recognizing that diversity can result in a stronger, more developed, more evolved industry."
   Traveling to origin has changed the lives of many women in specialty coffee. Earlier this year, Kimberly Easson of JavaVentures and TransFair U.S.A. and Karen Cebreros of the green importing company, Elan Organic Coffee, arranged the first ever Women in Coffee tour. Eighteen women from the U.S. signed up for the tour, and went on to visit a coffee cooperative in Jinotega, Nicaragua.
   Easson began her career with Café Britt, a grower in Costa Rica. The experience prompted her to travel throughout Central America and to Hawaii as a consultant to growers. "When I came back to the U.S., I really felt I had something special to offer," she recalls. "I felt like I could be a bridge. At that point, being a woman had nothing to do with it really. I saw a big opportunity to connect people and to create a more equitable partnership. The biggest asset I have as a woman is that I bring my heart into what I do and thankfully, in the specialty coffee business, that's acceptable."
   With JavaVentures, Easson can share that heart with many others. Participants in the Women in Coffee tour group met primarily with female growers, and the open exchange between the two groups was powerful. When Karyn Lee Thomas, owner of Signature Coffee in Northern California, returned home from the tour, she immediately registered to begin selling fair-trade coffee. "I had been buying fair-trade coffee and knew it was the right thing to do. But I hadn't been putting it on the packaging-I didn't know if I wanted to go through the bureaucracy [of being certified]. But I found that I did need to put it on the packages. I needed to tell the story."
   On one of the last days of the tour, Thomas recounts, a woman from the U.S. group asked the group of Nicaraguan growers what she and her fellow travelers could do to help. "One very proud woman stood up and said, 'Just buy our coffee.' It was a profound moment. They don't want charity. They just want a fair price."
   The women who have emerged in the specialty coffee industry stress their uniqueness and individual approach to the business. But they have several distinct characteristics and beliefs in common as coffee professionals. Each has an overwhelming dedication to the proliferation of high-quality coffee-but they are also equally convinced that their passion is not gender-specific. They note the countless men working tirelessly for the same causes who seek the same results. These women share their gratitude for all the people-men and women-who supported them, helped them and provided them with resources and valuable friendships. For many, the very visibility of these women is inspiration enough.
   But for the leaders of the movement on the horizon, such as Margaret Crow, who was recently named CEO of Coffee Bean International, and, as a woman in her thirties, is the youngest female president the company has ever had, acting as mentors and role models is part of the job. By continuing to follow their hearts and dreams, to use their positions within the industry to make a humanitarian difference in both their local and global communities, and to continue aggressively blazing the trail for the many women in coffee to come, it's only up from here.

Lisa Hoashi is a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon.