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Baristas At the working station, according to And coffee industry is no exception
the Guardian, female baristas seem more here. Depending on the society we live, some
Who is the manager in your local café? concerned with a lack of recognition than women have more opportunities to access
And how much do they get paid? Just like in remuneration, citing a public misconcep- education and grow in their profession. Those
coffee farms, there is a striking division of tion that men were more qualified coffee who have overcome the obstacles should serve
labor in the coffee shops. In 2017, PayScale makers. Speaking about her victory in 2018, as role models for other women, encouraging
recorded a gender pay gap of 13.6% in the US Agnieszka also emphasizes that your achieve- and motivating other women to get involved in
for Accommodation and Food Services. It ment should go first and your gender second: the industry and pursue their goals, creating or
mentioned that the biggest barrier to equal “I believe there is too much attention on supporting programs, trainings or courses that
pay was “equal opportunity”; while there was ‘being first woman’– I have not won because could help women to discover and develop their
still a pay gap when comparing compensation I was a woman – I won because I was the best abilities. All of our heroines believe that the
for men and women with the same job title, that day.” role model effect is key to contribute to the
women were also less likely to hold high- Nevertheless, if it seems that there are gender gap reduction.
er-paid positions. now more women among baristas, in fact, it If women and men at every step of seed
Agnieszka Rojewska became the World might be an illusion, since, according to to cup chain will support one another, we
Barista Champion in June 2018, after months Agnieszka “We are just more visible because will achieve tremendous results. Because
of practice and preparations of her routine. we speak up, we try to be more visible and women’s empowerment narrows the focus
She is the first woman ever to win the com- we try to make difference; also there are when there is a gap in equality in order that
petition. Also Agnieszka is a three times media and people that create attention women have the ability to realize their full
Barista Champion of Poland, four times Latte around ‘women in the industry’, I don’t think potential to participate in society as deci-
Art Championship winner, she has won the the numbers changed.” sion-makers. Both gender empowerment and
London Coffee Masters 2018 and the list of Certainly, historically it has been a women’s empowerment work to create a
her accomplishments goes on. Touring when male-dominated industry and baristas as a balanced society.
it is possible with All Stars and being a Head profession are a relatively new concept for
of coffee quality in Carimali, Agnieszka land- everyone. Since it has always been seen as a
ed all these great opportunities thanks to her part-time job and now became a career, for
now celebrity status in the industry. men and women, it has a long way to establish
itself. But as two genders require equality and
equity we could use both genders’ skills the
best way we can: “Women most of the time
are more focused on quality and caring. Wom-
en are also more willing to learn and know
opinions. It is said that women don’t like to
waste resources – so we might think they are
more efficient,” concluded Agnieszka.
Seen as a tradition and a right thing
to be in fact gender inequality actually
brings down family income. As Kofi Annan
once said, “Study after study has confirmed
that there is no development strategy more
beneficial to society as a whole – women and
men alike – than one which involves women
as central players. No other policy is as like-
ly to raise economic productivity, lower in-
fant and maternal mortality or improve nu-
trition and promote health. When women are
fully involved, the benefits can be seen im-
mediately: families are healthier; they are
better fed; their income, savings and rein-
vestment go up. And what is true of families
is true of communities and, eventually,
whole countries.”

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