The
Pot
ISSUE
M
ost American businesses are led by
men — only 7 percent of the CEOs of
Fortune 1000 companies are women.
Academics don’t fare much better. Ac-
cording to the American Association of
University Women, “As of 2012, only 26 percent of col-
leges and universities were headed by women.” That same
study showed that only 1 in 5 members of Congress is a
woman.
But there’s one industry that seems to be leveling the
playing field: weed.
“No one is telling women they can’t do it here,” says
Bethany Sherman, owner and CEO of OG Analytical,
a cannabis testing lab in Eugene. “There aren’t any
established markets primarily run by men because it’s a
new market segment.”
Marijuana Business Daily found that as of 2015,
women held 36 percent of executive positions in the
cannabis industry, and that 63 percent of the executive
positions in U.S. weed testing labs are held by women.
Sherman, who started her own weed testing business
in 2014, says women fill three out of the four leadership
positions at OG Analytical. “I like to think of it as our
generation’s dot-com bubble,” she says of the cannabis
industry. “There’s obvious gaps that need to be filled and
women are stepping into those opportunities.”
BETHANY SHERMAN
P HOTO BY TODD COOPER
Not only are women filling more leadership positions
in cannabis — Sherman estimates that women are 40
percent of leadership and ownership of marijuana related
businesses in town — but they’re supporting each other
as well. Sherman and Lindsey Jacobsen of Medication
Destination cofounded Women Leaders in Cannabis
(WLC), a nonprofit organization that helps women network
within the industry.
Sherman has since stepped down and let other women
take charge of WLC, including co-presidents Anna Kaplan
of SugarTop Buddery and Heidi Fikstad, a co-owner of
Moss Crossing.
Fikstad says she was familiar with the black market
marijuana industry before legalization. “It was super
sexist,” she says. Growers would compete to see “who has
the hottest girls trimming,” she adds. Now that it’s legal,
she says things have changed for the better. “We can bring
more women into the fold and consciously choose to put
women in leadership roles.”
Kaplan agrees. “We’re presented a clean slate for a new
paradigm in business in general,” she says. “This industry
has been more supportive than I could have ever imagined.”
Kaplan and Fikstad point out the ubiquitous stereotype
of the ganja girl. “For quite a while the ganja girl was
the dominant presence for women within the cannabis
industry,” Kaplan says. The ganja girl is a sexualized
female figure — a scantily clad young woman posing
with a bong or smoking sensually, usually for marketing
purposes.
Though Kaplan supports women being comfortable and
empowered with their sexuality, she says “it is important
that the sexualized female is not the only figure that
represents women within the cannabis industry.” With the
advent of legalization, ganja girls are no longer the only
women associated with cannabis, Kaplan says, and she’s
glad to see women as owners and master gardeners as well.
“I try to empower women as business leaders and not
just as sexualized figures,” Kaplan says.
Kaplan hopes women can embrace their sexuality and
feel empowered by it, but wants women to also have other
opportunities in the marijuana industry.
The industry is rapidly shifting and growing with
constant changes in legislation of cannabis, meaning there
are always new business opportunities in marijuana.
“I see more women just taking charge of their own
positions in the industry, instead of just waiting for a
position to open up, creating one,” Kaplan says.
Women leaders find the industry to be a bit of an
equalizer, but how is it for women on the ground dealing
directly with customers?
Dominique Ehmig works as a budtender — the person
selling weed behind the counter at a dispensary — at Hush
Dispensary on High Street. She says she works mostly with
other women. “We get a lot of surprise that we know what
we’re talking about, or just customers being really flirty.
Though of course most of our customers are really nice.”
Sierra Bamburg has worked as a budtender at Herbal
Connection for two years. She says the customers are pretty
evenly split between men and women. “There’s a lot of
different times when I’ll be there and I’ll try to help people
and they drift towards my male coworkers,” she says.
Bamburg says she’s had many customers send her
private messages asking to spend time with her or date her
outside of working hours — “I’ve had like 25 or 30 people
talk to me.”
“Just because I talk to you at work doesn’t mean I want
to talk to you all night,” she adds. At the same time, she says
her experience at the dispensary has helped her find a path
for her future. The owner of her workplace has begun giving
her more responsibility over their social media presence. “I
could really make a career doing this,” she says.
“It’s been fun, and just to know that I’m one of the only
ones with a password to our Facebook page, it’s really
inspiring. I could do this for anyone, even outside the weed
industry.” She plans to take marketing classes at Lane
Community College in the fall or winter.
Women business leaders have found new life and
prosperity working in marijuana. Kaplan says, “The
relationships that I have fostered in the cannabis industry
have been the most solid and beneficial through the women
I know in this industry.”
DOMINIQUE EHMIG
P HOTO BY TODD COOPER
For use by adults 21+. Don’t drive or operate machinery under the influence of
Marijuana. Keep out of reach of children
eugeneweekly.com • A ugust 17, 2017
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