RAISING THE BAR
How Arizona’s women bartenders have defied expectations
Danielle Goldtooth of WILD Arizona Cuisine is among several women bartenders across Arizona who are defying expectations.
Jaclyn McDowell has been a bartender for 19 years. But it’s not a job she ever thought she’d have. ● That was until she moved from Bisbee to the Valley in 1998 and applied for a serving job at Lonestar Steakhouse. ● “I walked in to get my application and there was two female bartenders behind the bar,” McDowell says. “At that instant, I was like, I want to be a bartender.” ● Until that point, she’d never even thought about bartending. But seeing two women doing the job inspired her to want to learn. McDowell took a mixology class, where she was one of only a few women in attendance, and learned how to mix drinks and memorize menus. ● These days, she makes espresso martinis and Old Fashioned cocktails at The Wigwam, a historical Southwestern-themed resort in Litchfield Park. She’s watched kids grow up over years of family vacations. Now some are old enough to order their own drinks.
It was exceptionally unusual to see two women bartenders behind the stick at a steakhouse in 1998, McDowell says. But even today, top bartending jobs continue to be dominated by men.
Opportunities for women in bartending have increased and progress has been made towards gender equality. But women bartenders continue to face inequality.
In order for that to change, increasing visibility for the work women are already doing behind the bar will be essential. It’s time to create space for women to be front and center in Arizona’s beverage industry, metro Phoenix women bartenders say.
The complicated history of women behind the bar
Many women entered the bartending industry during World War II when they took jobs in various industries that had historically been held by men, including mixing drinks.
But when American soldiers came home, women were pushed back out. In some cities and states, unions worked to outlaw women from working behind the bar.
For example, in Michigan in the 1940s, it was illegal for women to work at bars unless they were “the wife or daughter of the male owner.” A group of female bartenders challenged the law, arguing it violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
They lost.
The Supreme Court reasoned “bartenders are exposed to dangerous social and moral situations,” from which women should be protected. And with the country’s highest court backing the law, the idea that women shouldn’t be allowed to bartend spread.
By 1960, women couldn’t work behind the bar in 26 states.
Movements against discrimination based on race, religion, gender or national origin gained momentum in the early 1960s, and in 1964, the Civil Rights Act provided women with a legal precedent to fight for the right to tend bar.
By the 1970s, women in Phoenix often worked as cocktail waitresses and servers in saloons and bars.
Longtime downtown Phoenix bartender Rhonda Benston Showman moved to the Valley in 1973 and, after a stint at the Arizona Biltmore, started working at the historic Adams Hotel. She’s now tended bar at the hotel, which has changed names and ownership multiple times, for 46 years.
Over the decades she’s seen both customers and management begin to take women working in bars more seriously.
“When I first started at the hotel, we wore saloon hall girl outfits. They were, oh my god, they exploited us, it was horrible,” Benston Showman told The Arizona Republic in January.
It wasn’t uncommon in the first 20 years of her career for women to be seen as a draw for male customers because of their appearance, not their talent, she said. At some bars and many nightclubs in metro Phoenix, it’s still the case.
Kim Haasarud, beverage consultant and metro Phoenix cocktail royalty, started her bartending career in 1995 in New York City when “little cocktail dresses” were expected attire for women bartenders, she says. As soon as women bartenders got older or if they didn’t look young, thin and attractive, they would either be replaced or feel pressure to leave their jobs, Haasarud recalls.
It was uncommon for women to stay in bartending for any length of time. She remembers seeing career bartenders in the ‘90s and 2000s working in “old school steakhouses” and historic hotel bars such as the Plaza Hotel and Waldorf Astoria.
“But you never saw female bartenders in those roles, they were always male,” Haasarud says. “So you never really had something to aspire to.”
Haasarud vividly remembers the day a general manager at a New York bar asked her when she would have kids because her “clock was ticking.”
“That was kind of the attitude then, like, of course, this isn’t going to be a career, you are just paying for college,” Haasarud says. “There was kind of some shame around bartending, like it was a last option or not a real job.”
On a national level, Haasarud views two New York City bar openings as pivotal moments for women in bartending. In 2003, mixologist Julie Reiner opened Flatiron Lounge and, in 2005, Audrey Saunders opened Pegu Club. Both bars quickly rose to national fame and became sought-out cocktail destinations.
Haasarud says they also inspired a generation of female bartenders.
“Those women really paved the way to show other women that you can own a bar,” Haasarud says. “And not only that, you can own a bar in New York City, where if you can do that, you can do anything.”
Having role models is essential to inspiring the next generation of women to take up bartending as a career, Haasarud says. But despite the progress that’s been made, Haasarud says there’s “still a ways to go.”
“We have gotten a lot better, but that doesn’t mean that we are there yet,” she says.
How Phoenix’s women bartenders are defying expectations
Even award-winning women bartenders in Phoenix’s beverage scene continue to face sexist comments and unequal expectations from customers.
Bartender Chanel Godwin-McMaken works at Little Rituals in downtown Phoenix. In 2019, she won the high-profile cocktail competition Last Slinger Standing, beating out 15 other top bartenders from around the country.
At Little Rituals, owned by acclaimed cocktail expert and bar owner Ross Simon and one of Tucson’s premier mixologists Aaron DeFeo, Godwin-McMaken carved out an opportunity for herself, ultimately becoming one of the bar’s most celebrated bartenders.
But despite her skill, male customers sometimes make snide comments about her appearance and doubt her knowledge. It’s not uncommon for men to ask for a male bartender to make their drink instead of her, she says.
She tries not to dwell on these displays of sexism, but the unwarranted comments still hurt, Godwin-McMaken says.
“I would rather be above it,” she says. “I just try to laugh away what people say.”
Rising above snide comments isn’t the only challenge women bartenders face. Kirsten Rogge, who has worked as a bartender in Texas and Arizona, says customers can also be dismissive.
She recalled a time while working at The Phoenician resort when a group of men asked for a male staff member to tell them about the whiskey program, despite the fact that Rogge specializes in whiskey and is well-educated about the history of the spirit.
Begrudgingly, they ultimately ordered from Rogge.
“I like to be very Southern about it, just with a smile on my face like no, I can do this too just let me show you,” she says. “I enjoy the opportunities when I can defy someone’s expectations.”
Biting her tongue and gritting her teeth when dealing with sexist customers is difficult on a day-to-day basis,
Rogge says. She says she’s found that working at upscale resorts can sometimes be more challenging than working at small neighborhood bars.
“There’s a certain amount of entitlement that comes with a certain amount of money and prestige,” Rogge says.
Women working in hospitality can often feel like they’re stuck between a rock and a hard place. They don’t want to call out bad behavior from guests; it’s their job to be hospitable. On the other hand, Rogge emphasizes women should never stay in a situation where they feel threatened or insulted.
In instances when customers have made unwanted advances or comments, she’s asked a male coworker to switch sections with her.
“You swap a guy in for where creeps are,” she says.
But even if Rogge enjoys proving customers’ misconceptions wrong, she also looks forward to a day when women bartenders won’t have to prove themselves against such expectations — a day women bartenders won’t have to switch sections.
These bartenders are finding their ‘voice’ in the industry
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Bartender Danielle Goldtooth has fought against and defied expectations her entire career. Goldtooth is co-owner of pop-up dinner company WILD Arizona Cuisine. She grew up in New Mexico on the Navajo Nation where alcohol is illegal. It was “almost unheard of” for someone from the reservation to go into bartending, she says.
“A lot of people associate Native Americans with drinking and not necessarily in the best manner,” Goldtooth says.
Goldtooth works to extinguish that negative association by infusing her Native American heritage and family traditions into her drinks. When customers come to her dinners and want to know about the recipes and methods she used, Goldtooth feels proud.
Other women bar owners inspired her to take the leap into entrepreneurship.
“I see a huge shift already. I see the progress,” she says. “You have a lot of women taking the initiative to be owners and to have that voice in our industry.”
While more women have started to stake their claim on the bartending industry by opening their own bars, others are making their mark by working to bring up the next generation of bartenders into Phoenix’s established cocktail destinations.
Kristina Jonas works at Undertow, one of the Valley’s premier cocktail bars. After moving up from bartending to a management position, Jonas made it her focus to lift up younger women entering the world of bartending.
“We all need mentors,” Jonas says. “With women in our industry, we are trying to better ourselves so sometimes we forget to lend that hand or take the time to teach. But that for me has been the most rewarding thing.”
Jonas started bartending in New Orleans nightclubs 18 years ago when most bars expected women bartenders to come to work with full make every day and to wear skimpy uniforms.
“I was on a diet for 10 years of my life because I was so afraid that I would be replaced,” she says.
Now she helps young bartenders realize their worth, teaching them that their skills are more valuable than their looks and that they should speak up rather than putting up with sexism in the industry.
“The more we can push these young women to realize there’s more out there and they don’t have to settle, I think that’s an amazing thing,” she says.
How do the beer and wine industries stack up?
The need for equality extends beyond the world of craft cocktails. The beer and wine industries are also dealing with the repercussions of the longstanding reality that most brewers and winemakers are white and male.
Rob Fullmer, executive director of brewing advocacy, event and education group the Arizona Craft Brewers Guild, says the roles women play in breweries have changed over the past few years.
In the past, Fullmer says women working in breweries were often either the owner’s wife or servers. Some of Arizona’s longstanding breweries, such as Prescott Brewing Company, are familyowned. John Nielsen and his wife Roxane Nielsen have both been at the helm since the businesses opened in 1994.
But since about 2017, he’s started to see more women brewing.
As pandemic restrictions ease and businesses get back up and running, many breweries have jobs they’re looking to fill. Fullmer says it will be “a real defining period for us” to see who gets those jobs.
Historically, physical limitations have been an excuse for not hiring women, Fullmer says.
“That macho attitude, of you have to be able to lift a bag of grain, that’s changing. Nobody should be hurting themselves and you don’t have to do that to do the job,” he says.
But Fullmer says this pervasive “macho” attitude can make breweries an uncomfortable workplace for women. That needs to change if the industry is going to become more inclusive, he says. Pay equity also needs to be achieved. Women and people of color have historically struggled to have the same access to business loans as white men, but if more women are going to open breweries, Fullmer says this needs to change too.
There are initiatives that promote women in brewing. The Pink Boots Society, a national women’s brewing nonprofit organization founded in 2007, promotes education and inclusion for women in beer. The Arizona chapter has hosted brewing events at Huss Brewing Company, The Beer Research Institute, Walter Station Brewery and other Valley breweries.
Julia Gonzalez, a bartender at beloved local beer destination Wren House Brewing Company, says she was inspired to see Greenwood Brewing, a woman-owned and operated brewery, open in downtown Phoenix in July 2020.
“Those brewers are women and most of the bartenders are women. I think it’s so empowering to have that be part of your community and your culture,” Gonzalez says.
Wren House occupies a tiny building in central Phoenix and currently has an all-male brewing team. But the company recently expanded with a production facility in Prescott.
Gonzalez says she hopes the new jobs will open opportunities for women to brew.
Co-owner Drew Pool wrote in an email to The Republic that the brewery doesn’t currently have any female fulltime brewers, but they “hope to change that soon!”
In the wine world, 2020 brought a serious reckoning for the Court of Master Sommeliers, the industry’s most prestigious certification program. In October 2020, The New York Times published an article in which 21 women came forward with stories of sexual harassment, manipulation and assault from male master sommeliers. Leadership had long known about the issue, the women said.
Along with the much-needed push for gender diversity in wine, 2020 also brought a heightened awareness for the lack of representation for people of color in the industry.
Phoenix wine
expert
Cooper and her sister, who lives in New York City, set out to tackle both issues.
Together, they run Wine Spencer, a wine tasting company that’s operated virtually through the pandemic. The sisters offer wine classes featuring different wine varietals and growing regions. They also highlight specific groups of winemakers.
Over the last year, Cooper says Wine Spencer’s Black Winemakers class became the most popular offering.
“Being two African American females, it’s definitely important to us to really highlight those Black winemakers,” Cooper told The Republic.
While the momentum of the past year has made people more aware of the lack of diversity in wine, the problem is far from resolved. The Black Winemakers class may be popular, but Cooper is rarely able to find the wine for the class anywhere in metro Phoenix and has to order bottles online instead.
She hopes when customers learn about Black winemakers in her classes, they’ll start to ask for those wines at their local bottle shops, inspiring more owners to stock them.
Just as in the worlds of beer and cocktails, “there’s a lot more work to do,” Cooper says.
‘It’s so important for us all to continue to push’
Many agree: Increasing the visibility of women bartenders is key to inspiring more to enter the profession.
Jaclyn McDowell at the Wigwam would have never started her long and fulfilling bartending career if not for the women working at Lonestar who inspired her in the first place. Later, her female manager pushed her to further her beverage education and apply for a position behind the bar.
“When I became a bartender here, I had just gotten divorced, I bought a new house and I was a single parent and I wanted to be a strong independent woman that was able to take care of myself, take care of my kids and provide them with everything that they needed,” McDowell says.
Her bartending career enabled her to do all those things.
But women uplifting other women isn’t enough to change the industry. Men in the bartending world need to adjust as well.
Ross Simon, the owner of Little Rituals and other bars around the Valley, says he’s always seen a “good amount” of female bartenders in Phoenix. But now, “they’re getting more time to shine, deservedly so.”
“These women are definitely pushing themselves, working really hard and the venues are holding them up into the light they deserve,” he says.
Simon has worked to hire a diverse staff at all of his bars, he says. But more than anything, he looks for people with a passion to learn and grow regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation or anything else.
“I hate the stereotype of bartenders with mustaches and tattoos,” he says. “It’s just not what it is. It’s hard work, dedication, drive.”
Barter & Shake, the company behind top Phoenix bars Century Grand and Undertow, recently shone a spotlight on women in bartending. Kailee Asher, who runs marketing and communications for the company, created a program to partner women bartenders from around metro Phoenix with a national mentor to develop a cocktail. While Arizona bars were closed due to safety restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, Barter & Shake sold the premade drinks in glass bottles to-go.
Asher selected women from around the Valley and paired them with “really strong, influential, national personalities” including award-winning brand ambassador Charlotte Voisey of New
York City; Erin Hayes, partner and director of sales at Westward Whiskey; and Lynn House, a nationally acclaimed mixologist and spirits specialist out of Chicago.
Asher was inspired to start the project after she noticed a lack of skilled female bartenders in Phoenix when she moved from Las Vegas about seven years ago. In Las Vegas, at the time, she saw women mixologists leading cocktail programs for entire resorts and casinos including Kristen Schaefer, mixologist and Las Vegas Absolut Vodka ambassador, and Mariena Mercer, the property mixologist for the Cosmopolitan.
Despite Phoenix’s larger population, there just didn’t seem to be many women in craft cocktails, Asher says.
The profits from the takeout program were donated to national bartending organization Another Round, Another Rally to start a fund that reimburses women for certifications they earn. If a woman studies to become a certified sommelier or cicerone, for example, after passing the test, she can submit an invoice and be reimbursed for the cost of the class.
The women who participated in the takeout series included Barter & Shake employees Kristina Jonas, Iesha Farrington, Nicole Giampino and Ashley Cibor. Other spots were filled by bartenders from Valley businesses including Kyla Hein of Pigtails, Samantha Hickman of Windsor and Chanel Godwin-McMaken
of Little Rituals.
“It’s so important for us all to continue to push because we are not getting better if just one or two people are doing great,” Asher says. “All ships rise when the tide rises.”
The United States Bartenders Guild is another prominent group working to highlight and better the bar industry.
In March, the Phoenix chapter of the Guild announced its new leadership board. Abel Arriaga, elected to president of the chapter, is the only man on the board. The other three positions are now held by women.
Kirsten Rogge was approached by previous members of the board and asked to run for vice president. At the time, she was looking for ways to serve the bartending community. Rogge didn’t know that she would be part of the most female board the chapter has ever seen.
“It makes me super emotional, I feel really honored,” she says. “I feel like we are in this really great space of transition and reform and I feel like there’s this strong gust of wind moving us forward.”
But Rogge says it’s important to continue building on the progress.
“The next time there’s a board or a leadership council that’s this female, I don’t want it to even have to be noted,” she says.
Rogge plans to use her year-long term to encourage female bartenders from all over the Valley and from different types of bars — from dives to fine dining — to join the guild. She also plans to host educational events with brands and distributors to help members, especially new female members, increase their knowledge.
“I want to make females realize this is an actual job, a profession and a career that can be very rewarding and lucrative,” she says.
Women in the industry should lean on each other but also grow together, Rogge says. Career bartenders who’ve been mixing drinks for 40 years and those just getting started face some of the same battles, which Rogge hopes the next generation won’t have to.
“There’s a lot of things that have changed tremendously, and there’s a lot of things that haven’t moved an inch,” Rogge says. “The more we can do to build each other up, help the next generation and respect the women who paved the way for us, the better it will get.”