The cannabis industry is quickly becoming a magnet for female entrepreneurs. Medical or recreational marijuana is legal in 23 states and the District of Columbia. As legalization has increased, so have sales. In 2013, the industry was at $1.8 billion. In 2015, it was estimated at $5.4 billion, according to the ArcView Group, a cannabis-focused investment and research firm.
“The cannabis industry is so new that there are very few barriers to get in, especially for women,” said Giadha DeCarcer, CEO and founder of New Frontier, which provides data analysis for the marijuana industry.
Women account for 36% of all executives in the cannabis market, according to Marijuana Business Daily. That far surpasses the 22% national average for women in executive roles across all industries, according to Pew Research Center.
Finding the overall number of female cannabis entrepreneurs is harder to come by. But the anecdotal evidence is strong that more women are getting a foot in the door.
Jane West is at the forefront of this trend. West, “a proud cannabis user,” cofounded Women Grow, a professional networking group for women in cannabis. Its first event in 2014 had 70 attendees. Now it has chapters in 44 cities, with 21,000 subscribers to its weekly newsletter and 30,000 followers on Instagram.
Salwa Ibrahim has been an advocate of legal marijuana for a long time. Ibrahim and a business partner opened Blum, a medical marijuana dispensary, in Oakland, California, in 2012. It was a steep learning curve, but she made some smart moves to quickly get established.
On the cultivation side, cannabis growers are still predominantly men. That doesn’t sit well with Jennifer Gote. Gote fell into the industry out of necessity. She learned every aspect of the business and eventually started AOW Management, a cannabis cultivation and dispensary management company.
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