Where are all the female bar managers in Thailand?

The hospitality sector is one of the more women-friendly industries in the world. So, why is it harder to find a female bar manager than a man in charge in Thailand?

Thailand has firmly established itself as a tourism country, as such, we get to see women in hospitality shine through roles that employ a large number of women. This includes hotel staff, spa therapists, hostesses, and more. In spite of that data, research shows that only 32% of women hold senior positions in mid-market companies.

Thailand’s bar industry, specifically, seems to advance slower for women compared to others in the hospitality sector. The large gender pay gap in accordance with the higher level of management jobs also does not help.

Historically, being a bartender is “not a woman’s job.” In 1950, The New York Times published an article saying that women should not bartend, as “a woman cannot talk as well as a man, a woman can’t handle a drunk as well as a man,” and that female bartenders distract men too much. Unfortunately, Michigan’s Bartenders’ Union of the time seemed to agree with the article.

According to a historical review by Amy Holtman French of Central Michigan University, members of the Michigan’s Bartenders’ Union excluded women from the ranks of the union, therefore not allowing women to be included in political soirées and mingling with influential members of the community. They pushed for (and passed) the law to prohibit women from bartending, in order to keep the profession for the “breadwinners” of the family, declaring bartenders as a “sacred profession of males.”

It took around 30 years of continued pressure and an amount of court cases for women to be on equal grounds as men as a bartender, legislatively, but how much has really changed? 

[Hero and featured image credit: Jakub Dziubak/Unsplash]

Where are all the female bar managers in Thailand?

That gender disparity had also been present for Siam, but without the grand rebellion. The Bamboo Bar at the Oriental Hotel (now Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok), is often attributed as the first cocktail bar in Thailand. In April 2023, Chanel Adams became its first female bar manager, after almost 70 years of operation.

“There are some jobs that are still seen as ‘more honourable’ than others in Asian cultures,” Chanel explains. “And if you’re looking to advance your career to a higher level, family life is out the window. You have a baby and it gets extremely hard, but a man can get around that much easier.”

She adds, “Bartenders have communities and people from different bars meet, do activities outside of work. There still isn’t a big enough female community, or someone that helps to bring us together to the degree that male bartending communities get yet.”

Certainly, many Asians don’t see women and alcohol as something that should be paired together. The Singapore Sling was first created because the drink resembles fruit juice, which was perfect because it was socially unacceptable for women to be consuming alcohol. Diageo, one of the global leaders in alcoholic beverages, stated that it is still a stereotype present in Asia to see spirits and alcoholic beverages being gendered as a result of cultural norms. “In whisky advertising, you’ll rarely see women as the lead,” Diageo says in an interview.

Fahbeer, owner and bar manager of Lost in Thaislation, adds that there is simply not enough security, especially in clubs and bars with more fast-paced environments. “A big part of the job is dealing with people. Sure, cocktail bars like mine won’t see a lot of rowdy guests, but what about the women working in clubs and pubs? Drunk guests aren’t the best to be reasoned with, so are there enough bouncers at the venue? Someone close enough to the bar to help when there’s trouble?”

Moreover, we simply do not have that long of a history regarding bars and cocktails compared to the female bartenders of Michigan. While alcohol production and consumption in Thailand has been present at least since the 1400s in the form of white rice distilled spirits, the first written mention in the United States to refer to a drink as a “cocktail” was in 1806 on The Balance and The Columbian Repository. Thailand, on the contrary, is familiar with the spirit-and-mixer combination, but the oldest recording of a cocktail is through The Bamboo Bar, which opened in 1953.

Consumption is culture, and culture is resilient. It takes time for culture to meet with change, especially for a culture that is ingrained in our communities as we grow up. The spirit-and-mixer combination is what many Thais remember as “the way” to consume alcohol, so cocktail culture instead becomes something for people to be exposed to; something people try for themselves.

As drinking culture sees a shift towards cocktails, we can expect more women to be interested in the art of mixology. Still, that does not mean all we can do is sit and wait for bars to employ more women. We can facilitate cultural change by supporting Thailand’s female mixologists. Try their creations, listen to their stories, visit their bars.

“There will be change when there’s a demand,” explains Chanel. “Go try their cocktails, share their posts on social media, comment when you see media outlets featuring bars and leaving out women. Even though there’s not a lot of women in the spotlight, there still is enough for them to be featured.”