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Do we see gender equality in cof- like this, most of the times it’s because they
fee industry? appreciate your skills. Suci also acts in her job
as sales, then I realized my clients love me,
There are women everywhere in the cof- because being women sales, we are tend to be
fee industry: from farms at origin to retail considered more friendly, patient and detailed
counters. Certain sectors are definitely more in the job.
male dominated than others – and mine is one On the other hand, Chengcheng doesn’t
of these spaces. That was a challenge at first, think there is gender imbalance in her field,
but I earned the respect of my colleagues and she believes that women have been playing an
vendors fairly quick. Like what Amber shared equally important role as men in the coffee
with me her opinion: “Women’s roles in the industry despite that gender distribution is not
workplace are evolving, and over time we will always there even when we look at each sector
continue to see more women in historically of the supply chain. For instance, processing
male dominated sectors – like operations and and roasting tends to be male dominated as it
logistics.” She doesn’t think there is difference involves the operation of sophisticated and
between female and male, “I only believe heavy equipment, whereas more women are
there’s a difference in people and their inherent engaged in nursery work, cherry harvesting,
skills, what they like to do, etc. but it is not and sensory evaluation, all of which are more
necessarily related to gender.” When I asked detail oriented. She explained: “I think this
Tomoka the same question, she didn’t hesitate distribution gap, as far as I am concerned, has
and told me she sees the imbalance in gender nothing to do with gender discrimination.”
in her fields in Japan, “we don’t meet women For my personal experience, I’ve been in
in sales, traders or quality managers in other trading environment for quite some years now
companies here”. And being one of the very which I was told many years ago ‘trader’ is a
few, I always try to adopt to the environment, role which is very male dominated. I even
try to fit in the conversations. thought it was cool if I could become a trader
Suci agrees that sometimes people views one day. However, when I was the only female
her job differently, she told me that there were trader at the trading desk, I didn’t feel the Photo / Alina Vilchenko
many times when she was meeting with people, difference, and nobody treated me differently.
she got asked questions like: “Is this really your
own company?”, “Did you bring this brand in What about self differentiation?
China yourself?”, “You sure you can install this
equipment yourself?” She laughed: “You have Like Chengcheng said, to start with, let
no idea how many times I had to repeat the us try not to use the word “female” to a person’s
same answers to those questions.” However, profession, for example, female barista, fe-
both Suci and I think that’s only because tra- male producer... there is really no need to
ditionally, people rely on male professional to emphasize a person’s gender if we truly be-
handle this kind of business. People who reacts lieve in gender equality. Male and female coffee people alike are all members of the culturally in this diverse world we are living
coffee community that we love. in. As Amber said if everything we do, we do
Tomoka said she thinks by gaining more it 100%, work speaks for itself, and when you
We shouldn’t encourage gender war, experiences in our own fields, the more we can do good work people will see it. We should
handle in the daily job, the stronger we will be,
never feel held back by it – somehow you got
but we should make women’s voice “I think it is important to create an environ- to have that self-awareness and self-confidence,
We need to believe in ourselves and our abili-
ment that is comfortable for women to work
be heard, we should pass around in, and we should all make effort to do that.” ties and go after what we want, to know that
Suci said :“I hope every one of us, just focus
you could do whatever you put your mind to,
the positive messages and create on identifying themselves, being open minded, not what we’re told we should do. Women must
realize that they are often uniquely qualified
getting out there to listen and to be heard, being
opportunity for women to act, to independent and getting stronger, there is no to fulfill leadership roles while believing oth-
excuse for anyone not to work harder!” erwise. If you are fortunate enough to rise,
improve the world we live in. We have to admit, there’s always been understand that yes you got there because of
gender gap, maybe physically, mentally even your hard work.

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