Uncovering the hidden women in whisky’s history
Women’s role in whisky history is undeniable, but many of them have only been discovered in recent years. Heather Storgaard explains why and how stories of whisky women need to be told for the benefit of the industry’s future.
Flick through the whisky history books, and you may be surprised to see female faces peering back at you from across the centuries. From paintings showing illicit distillation – originally considered an extension of women’s kitchen work in Scotland – to Victorian-era industrial bottling lines and 1960s chemistry labs in Bourbon country, women are everywhere.
But try to find more than surface information and you will likely quickly hit roadblocks. With the industrialisation and later the commercialisation of whisky, women were increasingly pushed out of the public view.
While today organisations are working to make sure that women’s place in the modern industry is undeniable, how much attention has been paid to the women who existed in whisky’s past? And how do we keep their stories alive?
On the record
Someone who has been passionate about documenting whisky’s history is Dr Nicholas Morgan. His career has been intrinsically linked with Johnnie Walker and Diageo, where the focus on women in whisky’s past is naturally tied to Cardhu and the archetypal ‘whisky heroine’, Helen Cummings.
Helen and her daughter-in-law, Elizabeth, led Cardhu through its transformation from illicit to legal distillery, before negotiating its sale to Alexander Walker. For Morgan, this story didn’t exactly need uncovering (Cummings’ story is well known and her initials are still visible on the distillery) as much as re-centring.
“With the industrialisation and later the commercialisation of whisky, women were increasingly pushed out of the public view of whisky.”
In 2021, the distillery’s visitor centre re-launched, with the focus securely placed on Helen and Elizabeth’s legacies of resilience and strong business prowess. Guests are met with a statue of Helen, stood proudly alongside Johnnie Walker’s iconic striding man, and an animated film tells the story of the family’s female-dominated origin story.
But if women are not as well-known as Cardhu’s Cummings, how do we find them? Reach for the records. A dig in census data, litigation records and newspaper archives will all present you with historic whisky women, according to Morgan.
For the very earliest era of legal distilling in the Scottish Highlands, licenses are also a fabulous source. Dave Broom and Arthur Motley produced a fascinating episode of The Liquid Antiquarian by delving into excise records of female license holders in the early 19th century. They dived into the histories of women who, although perhaps few in number, undoubtedly made big impacts. One of them was Littlemill’s Jane MacGregor, an overlooked figure whose legacy has since been celebrated by a 47-year-old single malt released by Loch Lomond Group.
Cardhu’s Helen Cummings stands proudly alongside Johnnie Walker’s Striding Man.
While researching Victorian-era Scotch, Morgan also found women central to stories everywhere he looked, but notes that they haven’t had the airtime they deserve. “There are loads of women in whisky history. No one has bothered to give them due credit for what they did or even to go and find them,” he says.
His own research for A Long Stride: The Story Of The World's No.1 Scotch Whisky uncovered complex family dynamics in the Walker’s business, with the original John Walker’s wife, Elizabeth, clearly playing a pivotal role in company decisions even after she was widowed. The sway she held over her sons is clear in business decisions and branding, according to Morgan. She is also widely reported to have been fundamental in the blending process alongside her husband and Alexander when they were working in the original Walker grocers.
Naturally, other companies would love a story as vibrant as that of Cardhu, but while there are other women awaiting us in the records, Morgan sees it as important for brands not to get too set on a quest for their own perfect ‘whisky heroine’. Although tempting, it risks overlooking large numbers of women from more hidden corners of the industry.
Some of the most fascinating first photos of women in whisky show rooms of uniformed women working hard on bottling lines. Their contributions are often overlooked: it wasn’t glamorous work, like distilling or blending, but they ensured liquid entered bottles and bottles were shipped to consumers. “Those women were critical to the growth of Scotch whisky,” Morgan says.
Spirited Women: Sammi Katz and Olivia McGiff’s new book highlights women working in whisky.
Same old story?
Lagg Distillery on Arran is a young distillery, but proudly shares the story of Mary McKinnon: a local woman, she stashed a barrel of whisky under her skirts to hide it from the excisemen back in the early 19th century. The result was a stay in Rothesay Jail (as Morgan says, legal records are some of the best places to find traces of women in whisky, whether from litigation or criminal courts) and she is iconically quoted as saying, “I’ve never enjoyed a holiday so much!”
Heather Robertson, global brand manager for Arran & Lagg Single Malts, explains why the decision was made to highlight such a historic figure as McKinnon. “Although Lagg is a young distillery, we’re built on land steeped in those wild, rebellious tales from Arran’s past,” she says. “Women played a huge role in whisky’s early days, and it’s important to share stories like this.”
“Some of the most fascinating first photos of women in whisky show rooms of uniformed women working hard on bottling lines. Their contributions are often overlooked.”
Another company showcasing women in whisky history is online auction house Whisky Auctioneer, which passionately focuses on uncovering forgotten stories.
A particularly quirky example comes from a bottle of ‘D.H. Cromwell’ Stitzel-Weller Bourbon. ‘Dirty’ Helen Cromwell was a Milwaukee bar owner who refused to serve anything but Bourbon and Scotch, using foul language to remove anyone who didn’t follow her whisky-only policy. Her legend grew, eventually reaching Julian Van Winkle II, who paid for her to visit Kentucky. “We knew her legacy needed to be recognised,” explains head of content & strategy, Eilidh Jack. “Women like Helen have always shaped the whisky world and we’re proud to share their stories, especially when their inimitable personalities shine through.”
Laying the foundations
While it’s tempting to look back in time for inspiration, we stand to lose a lot if we fail to look at the world around us now. Sammi Katz and Olivia McGiff, the women behind the new book, Spirited Women: Makers, Shakers and Trailblazers in the World of Cocktails, have created a work that is part cocktail book, part record of women’s roles in drinks around the globe.
The book tells stories through interviews and illustrations, creating a physical record of women’s lives in spirits. “Everyone we interviewed told us who had uplifted their work,” Katz says of the process. “We started with our own networks and a list of dream figures, then the list spider-webbed out organically.”
They aimed to counter the persistent masculine image of whisky. “I wanted to show the breadth of women in the industry. You can make the liquid, you can open a bar, you can run a company.” Indeed – you can also publish books.
Women in Bourbon Oral History Project: Professor Janice Fernheimer has documented over 60 women through her trailblazing work.
Living history is being recorded in academic settings, too. Last year, Professor Janice Fernheimer was recognised as a 2024 ‘Women of Whiskey’ with the 2024 Bourbon Women Mikey Keyes Ally of the Year Award. But how had a professor of Jewish Studies ended up in whisky? Well, Fernheimer had been researching the often-overlooked Jewish history of the Bourbon industry.
“We didn’t find the smoking gun of a Jewish woman moonshining in the back hills,” she laughs, referring to the lack of perfect or idealised Bourbon women. Her comments are reminiscent of Morgan’s about the tempting search for a mythical whisky heroine. “As we went further, I wondered, why do we see women and Black people's images in distillery tour photos, but they are rarely identified by name or professional role?”
Her curiosity led to the Women in Bourbon Oral History Project. While teaching students oral history, she documented the stories of nearly 60 women in a collection that continues to grow. The project was deliberately broad, making sure to showcase women of many backgrounds, professions and viewpoints.
“I wondered, why do we see women and Black people’s images in distillery tour photos, but they are rarely identified by name or professional role?”
Fernheimer’s oldest participant at 92 years old was Brown Forman’s first female scientist, Elmer Lucille Allen. Fernheimer is very proud to have captured her fascinating story: Allen was woman born in Depression-era Louisville and educated during segregation, before breaking new ground in the world of Bourbon and finally devoting years to the arts scene in Louisville.
Future-proofing history
Whether women have a place in whisky isn’t a question that needs asking. Records, photos and film dating back as far as the dawn of the industry shows us that this isn’t a new development either.
Women have always been at the heart of whisky, whether in illicit distilling, marketing, bartending, on bottling lines or digging for peat. Over the centuries, thousands of women have worked in those whisky jobs with little prestige, and even less credit.
Place these forgotten women alongside our well-known whisky heroines – the Helen Cummings and Jane MacGregors – and we start to paint a picture of the massive contribution women have made. A failure to acknowledge them would mean a loss of our own history, not to mention a missed opportunity to show generations of the future that whisky has always belonged to all.
Documenting that work, digging it up from archives and presenting it to whisky lovers will only make the industry a brighter, richer place in the future.
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