Women\u2019s outsized contributions in the male-dominated trade of coffee reflects the phenomenon researcher Dr. Erika Koss calls the \u201cgendered coffee paradox.\u201d<\/a> Deeply-ingrained gender roles hinder how women view their own value, says photographer and storyteller Luc\u00eda Bawot. She visited 62 women for her 2023 book \u201cWe Belong: An Anthology of Colombian Women Coffee Farmers<\/a>,\u201d which aimed to make women\u2019s invisible labor, visible. \u201cThey\u2019d tell me, \u2018My story is not really important. Do you want to talk to my husband?\u2019\u201d Bawot says. \u201cThey didn\u2019t feel capable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From roastery websites to coffee conferences to the\u2019 Instagrams of coffee farmers like Rituales Caf\u00e9<\/a> and Java Halu Coffee<\/a>, there is a growing movement that aims to \u201cempower women\u201d\u2014but how much of it is just talk?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ana Maria Donneys, owner of Caf\u00e9 Primitivo<\/a>, is a fifth-generation caficultora (coffee grower) in Armenia, Colombia. \u201cMen always managed the farms in my family,\u201d Donneys says. \u201cBecause my grandfather had two daughters and I was his only grandchild, only women could continue, if we wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Other male farm owners expected her mother and aunt to sell the land\u2014so at 26 years old, Donneys decided to take over management of six farms. But the male farm workers were resistant to her desire to shift production to value coffee quality over quantity. \u201cI couldn\u2019t walk alone in the fields because they would start whistling,\u201d Donneys says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now 30, Donneys is a Q Grader finishing her Master\u2019s in Coffee Agribusiness. Before Primitivo had a coffee lab, she\u2019d invite male employees to the (literal) cupping table\u2014and once the coffee won higher prices, they realized she\u2019d been right. \u201cI needed results to earn their respect,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Donneys believes she entered coffee at a time when there are many more opportunities for young, English-speaking women, accompanied by the education to create a brand around their coffee. But it\u2019s still uncommon for women to have this level of decision-making power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women perform various often-overlapping<\/a>\u00a0roles on coffee farms, including planting seedlings, weeding fields, picking ripe cherries, and preparing them for storage and transport. Ethiolatin<\/a> research found<\/a> that Ethiopian women contribute 81% of sowing, 100% of harvesting, 98% of land preparation, and 92% of transportation\u2014much of which has historically, and uncharitably, been called \u201cunskilled labor<\/a>.\u201d That extends to the particularly undervalued work of kitchen staff on farm dynamics: both women and men told Bawot they choose seasonal farm labor based on the cafeteria\u2019s food quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically, gender roles have been shaped by\u00a0disparities<\/a>\u00a0in land ownership laws. \u201cMany women aren\u2019t\u00a0seen as coffee farmers<\/a>\u00a0because they can\u2019t sell the coffee under their name,\u201d says Bawot. Some women inherit farms after male relatives die naturally, as in Donneys\u2019 case. In countries that have seen violent conflict like Rwanda and Colombia, women have inherited farms after male relatives were killed. In Kenya, where women\u00a0provide 80% of agricultural labor<\/a>, they own\u00a0only 1%<\/a>\u00a0of land with a single title, compared to\u00a018.6% in neighboring Rwanda<\/a> and 36% in Colombia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many countries are introducing land-policy<\/a> reforms<\/a> to address gender inequality\u2014but it\u2019s not an automatic fix. When Costa Rican coffee producer Marianella B\u00e1ez Jost and her American husband bought Caf\u00e9 Con Amor<\/a> in 2013, she says, \u201cI had to shop for a farm with my brother and dad […] Men are the negotiators in the eyes of this society.\u201d She later joined the Board of Directors of the local International Women\u2019s Coffee Alliance (IWCA)<\/a>, an organization with a stated vision<\/a> to \u201cbe the leader of empowerment and equity for all women in coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She\u2019s one of many women committed to pushing progress. Yellow Rooster Coffee Imports<\/a> Relationship Manager Sara Bedoya co-founded the IWCA Colombia chapter in 2021, and later started what she calls an Antioqu\u00eda sister association in 2023. She now advises 60 women on branding and potential clients alongside her full-time job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although their husbands are the main landowners, the women find space to advance. \u201cThey went from working in the kitchen to going to school to learn about management, marketing, and sales,\u201d Bedoya says. \u201cI see myself as a bridge for them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n From the US to Colombia and Ethiopia, the perception of \u201cempowerment\u201d varies between cultural contexts. Bedoya says it feels stronger in Spanish, whereas it\u2019s been watered down in English. \u201cIt\u2019s like, \u2018This latte empowers me to go about my day,’\u201d she jokes. \u201cLatin culture is very machista, so when I say I empower women, and other women empower me, it’s like we are making a difference in history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Ethiopia, making women equal participants in coffee would be like an oxymoron because they’re the dominant participants,\u201d says Dagmawi I.E., CEO of\u00a0Eshi Safaris LLC<\/a>\u00a0and director of programs for\u00a0Grounds for Health<\/a>, which has provided women\u2019s health programs in coffee-growing communities since 1996. His wife owns a roastery in Addis Abeba. \u201cBut the support they need for equitable participation is very different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although motherhood is still Ethiopian women\u2019s biggest leverage to influence discourse, they don\u2019t see themselves as \u201cvictims,\u201d he says. \u201cAs a society, we’re increasingly aware that I should get access because of me, not because of my husband.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Essentially, empowerment is about how we wield it: There is a big difference<\/a> between whether women are<\/em> empowered, or whether they empower<\/em> themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe agriculture industry has an interest and a role supporting greater levels of female autonomy, agency, and empowerment,\u201d says Greg Meenahan, strategic advisor and program developer at Equal Origins<\/a>. Doing it right, however, takes concerted effort. \u201cWe have to involve men and boys<\/a> in these conversations, but they don\u2019t have the right to give or not give empowerment,\u201d says Meenahan. \u201cEmpowerment is when women with agency and knowledge take part in decision-making [while] not restricted by time poverty.\u201d In fact, women\u2019s time is spread so thin across agricultural and domestic responsibilities that they often don\u2019t have time to participate in initiatives aiming to empower them, he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Promoting gender equity means moving beyond programs to improve coffee yield or quality towards a holistic understanding of the factors affecting women\u2014which is why Equal Origins developed the Gender Equity Index (GEI)<\/a> for use in the coffee and cacao supply chains. The tool assesses participating coffee businesses across five granular categories, and rates their performance against industry benchmarks. It\u2019s based on the \u201cReach, Benefit, Empower, and Transform\u201d framework that lays out a roadmap for scalable impact, from efforts to include women at a basic level; to meeting their health, income, and other needs for well-being; to strengthening their decision-making abilities and participation; and finally to shifting gendered attitudes at a community level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe teams we work are predominantly men,\u201d says Meenahan. \u201cUsing the GEI, teams shift gender equity from being someone else\u2019s job, to being clearly defined within the context of each member\u2019s role, duties, and responsibility on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coffee companies have different methods for supporting women coffee producers. \u201cWe\u2019re doing the bare minimum [and] using our purchasing power as roasters and retailers to shift the narrative in support of women,\u201d says Jenny Ulbricht, who founded East View Coffee Company<\/a> in 2020 with women\u2019s empowerment in mind. \u201cCoffee value is more than a number on a tasting notes sheet. There are people behind that number and the truth is, most of those people are women,\u201d she says. East View now sources 90% of coffee from women producers\u2014including Marianella B\u00e1ez Jost\u2014up from an initial 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meanwhile, Kahawa 1893<\/a> has adapted<\/a> a Kenyan \u201ctable banking\u201d model that allows consumers to directly tip women producers<\/a> during checkout and\/or via QR code on the coffee packaging. Founder Margaret Nyamumbo says the company has raised $90,000 since 2017 by matching $45,000 in customer tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, says Meenahan, \u201cwomen owners are among the most visible women in the supply chain, especially compared to the women who co-farms with her husband.\u201d The coffee industry\u2019s complicated dynamics, however, lead him to caution that \u201ca woman-owned farm doesn\u2019t necessarily mean that the farm is more or less gender equitable than any other farm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition, the marketing around empowerment concerns some producers. \u201cIn my opinion, it doesn’t matter if you’re buying directly from a female-owned coffee farm if you’re not paying attention to the damage caused by climate change in coffee-producing regions and consistently low prices,\u201d which often don\u2019t cover cost of production, says Karla Boza, a coffee producer and Q Grader at Finca San Antonio Amatepec<\/a> in El Salvador.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The industry must urgently ensure coffee farming remains environmentally<\/a> and\u00a0financially<\/a>\u00a0sustainable for farmers. When asked about the support they need most, women most commonly mentioned access to credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Amanda Bravo co-founded Rituales Caf\u00e9 in Medell\u00edn, Colombia, as a\u00a0social impact venture<\/a>\u00a0in 2017, when she was frequently mistaken as her male co-founders\u2019 employee. Bravo says she\u2019s since broken the paradigm: Customers are now more accepting of women in management. Rituales now employs 80% women, but still faces challenges. \u201cFinding banks that finance women\u2019s businesses in Colombia isn\u2019t easy, nor does the government offer much aid,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Microfinance programs have shown promise<\/a>. \u201cMicrofinance just isn\u2019t a sexy thing to talk about, but it has a huge impact,\u201d says Amaris Gutierrez-Rey, VP of Coffee at Joe Coffee Company<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women also want opportunities to share knowledge with other women, like Bean Voyage\u2019s Women-Powered Coffee Summit<\/a> where Bawot and Koss connected, or through the IWCA network that connects 14,000+ women across the value chain, including Bedoya and Donneys<\/a>. \u201cEmpowerment is having a community,\u201d Donneys says. \u201cIt\u2019s how I feel strong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite coffee\u2019s unambiguously inequitable colonial history, Nyamumbo, Dagmawi I.E., and Meenahan have all called it \u201ca tool for impact\/empowerment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Today, smallholder coffee farmers\u00a0continue to live in poverty<\/a>. Research shows\u00a0coffee\u2019s current economic model is unviable for farmers<\/a>, partially because\u00a0<\/em>family labor isn\u2019t properly accounted for. (It also shows there is enough value in coffee for everyone, if we change the model.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Far from overshadowing the need to pay everyone in coffee production at least a living income<\/a>, women\u2019s empowerment is key to the solution. \u201cAny conversation about equitable value distribution needs to incorporate gender equity,\u201d says Gutierrez-Rey, adding, \u201cNo sustainable climate solutions are without gender equity in the equation.\u201d The conversation is stifled, however, by a persistent lack<\/a> of current gender data, which Gutierrez-Rey highlighted through the Women in Coffee Project<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for \u201cempowerment,\u201d Dr. Koss suggests<\/a> \u201caccompaniment,\u201d or \u201cwalking alongside,\u201d as an alternative. But not everyone will agree on the language, or the right way to do it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWomen are not a monolith,\u201d Bawot says, and she\u2019s right\u2014even the women in this article differ! Bawot herself says she will no longer buy coffee marketed as produced by women\u2014because coffee is inherently <\/em>produced by women.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI think we need to stop putting the value of women coffee farmers in their gender,\u201d she says. Then, she channels the future she\u2019d like to see: \u201cYou should be helping me because I’m a capable farmer, just like my husband, my cousin, and my uncle\u2014and pay me for the labor that adds value to that coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Chlo\u00e9 Skye Weiser<\/a><\/em> is a freelance sustainability and <\/em>food <\/em>writer from NYC and based in Denmark. Read more from Chlo\u00e9 Skye Weiser on Sprudge. <\/a><\/u><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A couple years ago, I was visiting a coffee roaster in Odense, Denmark when I encountered a bag of beans titled simply, \u201cWomen\u2019s Coffee.\u201d This was the only bag from six to eight roasts named after something other than local neighborhoods in the city. \u201cWhat\u2019s \u2018women\u2019s coffee\u2019?\u201d I asked them. As it turns out, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":743,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-cover.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[187,168,170,169,177,166,182,180,176,181,179,178,173,183,186,184,167,185,171,175,174],"class_list":["post-741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-amaris-gutierrez-rey","tag-ana-maria-donneys","tag-cafe-con-amor","tag-cafe-primitivo","tag-dagmawi-i-e","tag-dr-erika-koss","tag-east-view-coffee-company","tag-equal-origins","tag-eshi-safaris-llc","tag-gender-equity-index","tag-greg-meenahan","tag-grounds-for-health","tag-international-womens-coffee-alliance","tag-jenny-ulbricht","tag-joe-coffee-company","tag-kahawa-1893","tag-lucia-bawot","tag-margaret-nyamumbo","tag-marianella-baez-jost","tag-sara-bedoya","tag-yellow-rooster-coffee-imports"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"women-in-coffee-ana-maria-donneys-in-the-field\"](\"http:\/\/specialprojects.sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/women-in-coffee-ana-maria-donneys-in-the-field-768x1024.webp\")
Women coffee farmers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"women-in-coffee-marianella-at-iwca-chicago-2024\"](\"http:\/\/specialprojects.sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/women-in-coffee-marianella-at-iwca-chicago-2024-1024x768.webp\")
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/specialprojects.sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/women-in-coffee-sara-bedoya-picking-coffee-768x1024.webp\")
How we view \u201cempowerment\u201d <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"women-in-coffee-dagmawi-i.e\"](\"http:\/\/specialprojects.sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/women-in-coffee-dagmawi-i-e-1024x819.webp\")
Marketing empowerment<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"women-in-coffee-jenny-ulbricht-roasting\"](\"http:\/\/specialprojects.sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/women-in-coffee-jenny-ulbricht-roasting-1024x683.webp\")
The empowerment that women need<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"women-in-coffee-amanda-bravo-rituales-1-2\"](\"http:\/\/specialprojects.sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/women-in-coffee-amanda-bravo-rituales-1-2-768x1024.webp\")
![\"Amaris-gutierrez-rey-with-mug-at-pulley\"](\"http:\/\/specialprojects.sprudge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/women-in-coffee-amaris-gutierrez-rey-with-mug-at-pulley-1024x1024.webp\")
Empowerment for everyone<\/h2>\n\n\n\n