Women reshape whiskey industry as distillers and innovators advance

Women are taking leadership roles in the traditionally male-dominated whiskey industry as more women become distillers, blenders, and business owners while female consumption rises. The shift represents a significant transformation in an industry long perceived as exclusively male, with women now launching brands, managing operations, and earning recognition for innovation.

The trend reflects both changing consumer preferences and a rediscovery of women’s historical role in whiskey production—from ancient alchemy to 19th-century Kentucky distilleries to Prohibition-era bootleggers—that had largely faded from industry memory.

From chemistry to whiskey

Meghan Ireland studied chemical engineering as a college student before discovering how to apply her passion for science to whiskey. Reading an article about a female chemical engineer who became a master distiller opened a door she had not considered. “It was kind of like a connection of, ‘hey, I can see someone who looks like me, who has the same exact kind of education and background doing this job,’ and kind of opened it up as an option,” Ireland said.

Today, Ireland leads blending at Vermont-based WhistlePig as the company’s chief blender, a position she has held since 2018. She oversees the brand’s experimental batches and has earned recognition for innovation. Her first major development, Boss Hog VII, attracted praise and awards for its finishing in Spanish oak and Brazilian teakwood barrels.

Ireland represents a broader shift in the whiskey industry. Women are increasingly launching their own brands and finding new ways to innovate in distilling and blending, even as more women are drinking whiskey.

The doubts women face

Women in the whiskey industry encounter lingering skepticism about their relationship to the product. Becky Paskin, a U.K. journalist and founder of the OurWhiskey Foundation, an organization that promotes women in the whiskey business, was asked while serving as a judge at a whiskey tasting whether she even liked whiskey.

“It is a drink that comes with certain expectations around which gender drinks it and which gender makes it,” Paskin said. “Barely any other drink or food falls under such scrutiny.”

Paskin has worked to counter the stereotyping through imagery. She noted that the only existing images of women drinking whiskey depicted them in problematic ways. “The only images of women drinking whiskey were depicting them as being pregnant, drunk, naked; or pregnant, drunk and naked,” she said. Her work has focused on creating images that show women consuming whiskey without presenting them as sex objects or warnings.

A long history women forget

The perception of whiskey-making as exclusively masculine overlooks a long history of women in the industry. Maria Hebraea, an alchemist from around the 2nd century, created the first distilling instrument, according to bourbon expert Susan Reigler. In its early forms, distilling was largely women’s work, with women managing home brewing, making medicine, and managing households.

In 1800s Kentucky, women notably managed distilleries. Catherine Carpenter recorded the first known recipe for sour mash during that period, a style that became the most common form of American whiskey.

During Prohibition, female bootleggers may have been more numerous than male ones. According to the book “Whiskey Women” by Fred Minnick, women were less likely to be searched by police, giving them an advantage in the illegal trade.

The Kentucky Bourbon Trail, a marketing innovation that has since been copied nationwide, was co-founded by three women: Peggy Noe Stevens, the world’s first female Master Bourbon Taster at Woodford Reserve; Donna Nally with Maker’s Mark; and Doris Calhoun with Jim Beam. Reigler, who has documented women’s contributions to the industry, noted that “there have always been women in bourbon, but a lot of them have been behind the scenes.”

The changing face of whiskey

Judy Hollis Jones spent years as a senior executive in the food industry before launching a whiskey company in Kentucky in 2019. At Buzzard’s Roost, where she serves as president and CEO alongside Master Blender Jason Brauner, she has found the whiskey business demanding but transforming.

“I’ve had people say to me, ‘Oh, well, you don’t wear jeans, boots and a cowboy hat,’” she said. “And I said: ‘No, I don’t. And every bourbon drinker female does not. We are very wide range of people that love bourbon.’”

According to Hollis Jones, one consistent shift in the industry is the increasing number of women showing up to tastings and tours, eager to participate in the whiskey experience.

Ireland said the presence of women in the industry establishes whiskey as available to everyone. “It can be enjoyed by everyone and it’s being made by females too,” she said.