Women and Wine!
March 22nd 2009
In January 2009, WineWise started a new Top course and "again" there are 0 % Belgian women, while our Dutch collegues subscribe with 50% women. Time to do something about it!
My colleagues and I have a joke: the many Dutch women subscribing for the courses do so because of the charms of Frank Smulders MW, whereas in Belgium, only man cannot resist my charms. After 5 years of courses, I start questioning this theory. The base courses in Belgium attract about 50% women, but as soon as we continue to the advanced level courses, these numbers drop drastically. And for the top level, I am still the ONLY Belgian woman who completed the full WSET Diploma course and successfully obtained the European wine title "Weinakademiker". While in other European countries the balance is 50/50. At the end of 2008, me and some girlfriends had a brainstorm how to alter this trend. One thing is sure: in 2009 I will make sure more women get the chance, or better, take the chance to develop themselves further in the world of wine. No feminist fuss, or just a mere "women circle", but tangible actions leading to more Belgian women educating themselves in a professional way on wine.
As a kick-off, WineWise organizes a round table with 15 women on Sunday the 22nd of March 2009, from 3 pm till 5pm in Het Leerhof (Parike - Brakel), the BRAINstorm center of Belgium. Are you interested in taking part of this? Send an email to sybille@winewise.be!
read more ...
