Women in Cannabis Industry Business October 2019

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Contributor: KC Scannell

The cannabis industry is a complicated one, that is for sure. That has been common knowledge since its inception many years ago. While this particular realm of business seems to have more “red tape” and “hoops” than the average industry, there has been nothing but success from every realm of the country that has wisely decided to legalize medicinal and/or recreational cannabis – with revenue reports coming in at the “hundreds of millions” mark.

That, ladies and gentlemen, is nothing to sneeze at. In fact, with those impressive earnings, it is hard to argue against the claim that the cannabis industry is one of the most profitable out there currently. Beyond the insurmountable waves of monetary success that this industry is able to boast about, there is another detail to the average marijuana company’s business model that I find most appealing – and, to be honest – long overdue.

That, my friends, is the amount of female executives with high-level positions that can be found at cannabis companies.

To better put things in perspective, in every other realm of business, roughly only 21% of them can sport the same claim of having women in positions of executive power. Which, to me, is absurd. The fact that gender equality still has to be fought for is a depressing characteristic of our society.

While the “powers that be” dishonestly portray this feeling of inclusivity and acceptance, the proof, for lack of a better term, is in the “pudding.” Let’s just say, there are not a whole lot of females to be found in positions of power.

That same sexist sentiment can’t be shared by the burgeoning cannabis industry. In the business world of marijuana (and marijuana-related products and storefronts), an impressive 36.8% of executives are female. That number has grown over the years, with no signs of slowing down.

Which leaves the average cannabis enthusiast scratching their head in perplexed confusion.

If this industry is quickly proving its worth and value with mind-blowingly big fiscal reports and mountains of legally acquired revenue, shouldn’t every other business follow suit and allow more women onto their executive teams? Because, just by looking at the numbers, every company with a more balanced team of higher-ups seems to be even more profitable than its already successful counterparts.

I am not going to lie, that is a solid question.

To be honest, there is only speculation surrounding these sorts of gender-specific queries about company leadership. Broken down to its most basic minutiae, it comes down to misguided, preconceived notions of how CEOs and founders get their money in the first place.

To elaborate, analysts believe that markets that are more condensed and competitive are more prone to have male executives – purely for their “assumed” connections to wealth. They believe that men, more than women, have more easily accessible routes to venture capitalists and start-up money – potentially through an insanely rich family member or friend. Boiled down, it harbors back to the days of guys looking out for themselves – in a “if you scratch my back, I will scratch yours” type of mentality.

Taking this route, it inherently stiff-arms everyone who isn’t a man out of the process altogether – as these founders usually reward their equally-male monetary suppliers with seats on the board of the company, as a sort of “thank you” for all of their investment money. With only a small percentage of women being able to fight through the unnecessary muck and mire that surround these male-dominated businesses.

This sort of exclusivity leaves an army of highly-competent, intelligent, skilled women in lesser paying jobs. Per the usual, when an employee feels like they are being undervalued or underpaid, that is when they start to jump ship and look for a more deserving opportunity to advance their career. When the legalization of marijuana became popular, and that industry started to grow, that is when a litany of women saw their chance to escape the restrictive confines of whatever male-centric industry they currently found themselves trapped in.

When cannabis was first legalized, the competition of companies and brands wasn’t even nearly as intense as other industries. Everyone was still “figuring it out” so to speak, so the emergence of numerous businesses started taking shape, often with a decent amount of women and minorities on the executive team.

This is basically a result of these companies needing to find competent people to fill those positions in a more hurried fashion to keep up with their peers. Which resulted in them reaching out to under-appreciated female employees in other industries – or even going through their own family tree to find a worthwhile female candidate to fill any number of powerful positions. In doing so, many women started to find themselves in boardrooms and important meetings, all of whom helped increase the profitability and success of their growing industry in exponential ways.

Now, I am not saying the cannabis industry is flawless. Far from it, but they do mean well. Such a minor blemish in character can be seen during the analysis of such states as Washington and Colorado. These two cannabis dynamos are no longer in the “figuring it out” stage of things. They are years into legalization, which means that the level of competition there is unlike other states who are still in their THC-transaction infancy.

Sadly, in these saturated states, the majority of cannabis companies are falling back into the trend of solely relying on people who have connections to high-sums of family or V.C. money. As you probably already assumed, the majority of those people are men. Thusly, the whole gender-separating process is repeated – but not as deeply as in other industries, thankfully.

Instead, unlike those other money-hungry business, the cannabis industry learns from past experiences. The facts are more than clear in this case. They have found that a diverse executive team will more often result in a successful business. There is really no denying that at this point. Which is why many cannabis-related companies have made it a priority to seek out candidates of all genders and backgrounds to fill out their executive boards.

That is more than what could be said for the average industry, who is still relying on archaic, sexist presumptions to go about their business. While they may think their way is “tried and tested” – it is really only a matter of time before they realize just how big of an error they made by ignoring all of their amazing female employees. I guarantee it.

Though the number of powerful females in the cannabis industry has fluctuated slightly over the years, it still dominates when compared to any other realm of business in this country. I for one, am ecstatic to see such a statistic. What is even better, is that these companies are thriving in an industry that is consistently crowded and competitive. Which is just proof that these women know exactly what they are doing – and they didn’t need any money-related reputations to get them to their high levels of well-deserved success.

Even though the cannabis industry is a leader in female empowerment, there is still a long way to go. However, I hope these other industries learn a thing or two from these marijuana companies. If they do, I am confident we will see a spike in women executives nationwide in the very near future. Fingers crossed.