Ladies first today! Think of the women behind...

March 8, 2017

Ladies first today! Think of the women behind…

Beautiful young blonde woamn harvesting grapes outdoors in vineyard

Many articles have been written recently about sexism, namely about females not treated equally in wine industry. The first article was published in January on wine-searcher.com by James Laurence, who tried to find the answers for the question why there are less women in wine business than men in spite of the fact that at graduation the gender ratio is 50-50% in many countries. ’The world of wine is still a long way from being an equal-opportunities employer’ – says Laurence. Why? According to the article:

Harvest time is hard to manage if you have children and you work long hours.
Women’s contributions often get overshadowed: men are far more comfortable in saying ‘I’; I did this or I did that, my idea etc. Women generally are far more inclusive, they tend to use the terms ‘we’, ‘us’, ‘together’.
Making wine is an ugly, hard job, like working in an oil rig.
‘There is a boy’s club feel in many wineries, and hiring women changes that…’

Many readers responded this article, and in a following one an Australian female winemaker stepped forward to tell her story. ‘Not too long ago we had nude girly calendars up in the cellar. I’ve had my cellar notes screwed up and thrown on the ground because they didn’t want to take orders from a female’ she recalls.

How about Hungary?

Just like globally, in Hungary there are more and more sommeliers, winemakers, wine experts, but the ratio is still not more than 10%. However, if you think of the women working in a winery, there are much more, or to put it in another way, there are hardly any wineries without a female employee in a key position – though not in the top position. Today, when International Women’s Day is celebrated, think of the women whose work is not as spectacular as a bottle of iconic wine, but without there industrious work, their female instincts, their brilliant ideas, your winery would not be as successful as it is.

Daughters to mention

Zsuzsanna Babarczi, daughter of winemaker László Babarczi in Pannonhalma works hard in the family winery and step by step she gathers a massive group of followers for their winery. Katalin Tóth, daughter of Ferenc Tóth in Eger is a serious support with her creativity, just like Ildikó Eszterbauer to János Eszterbauer in Szekszárd, and also Ildikó is the one to participate in community activities in Szekszárd, to create new ideas to market the wines. And we could continue this list for a long time!

Cheers to all ladies!

So today, at dinner, raise your glass to those whose name is not written on the front label, neither on the black, but work hard. Raise your glass to wives, daughters, mothers, secretaries, assistants, office workers, grape pickers!