Pioneering women in cannabis industry losing ground, author says
Published: Nov 24, 2017, 5:02 pm • Updated: Nov 24, 2017, 5:02 pm
By Tess Allen, Civilized
Time and time again, the cannabis industry has been heralded as a haven for female entrepreneurs and members of other marginalized groups.
But a troubling new trend is on the rise; one that appears to show how the cannabis industry’s most pioneering women are being pushed aside as the market matures.
Ashley Picillo is the author of “Breaking the Grass Ceiling.” (Courtesy of Ashley Picillo)
A recent survey found that the share of start-ups owned by women is on the decline. While women made up 36 percent of executives in cannabis-related companies two years ago, that figure shrank to 27 percent this year.
It’s a distressing pattern that Ashley Picillo first noticed when she set out to write her book, “Breaking The Grass Ceiling.”
While the book was initially conceived as a catalog of sorts to showcase the cannabis industry’s most inspiring women, the interviews Picillo conducted with her subjects quickly adopted similarly sinister undertones.
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“I really, truly thought this book was going to be a biographical collection to highlight what women [in cannabis] have accomplished, and I think it does do that,” Picillo tells Civilized. “However, I think it’s really interesting that in the last 18 months, at least four or five of the women in the book have had distinctly similar stories of being ousted from things they built.”
Read the rest of this story at Civilized.life.
Cannabist Show interview with author Ashley Picillo:
This story was first published on Civilized.life
Topics: ashley picillo, ganjapreneurs, industry, startups, women
