A Woman's Work
Do women have a deeper thumbprint on the hospitality market where we live more than other places? Yes and no.
Yes, the Upstate is fertile ground for startups. We are commerce-friendly for retailers and replete with fresh, short-stay tourism. It is simple and affordable to start a business here. When compared to our neighbor states, commercial rent is low, as are taxes and gas. Add in the super highway of 85 zipping southerners between the juggernauts of Atlanta and Charlotte and, in essence, women have rolled the dice here opening businesses, making wares and creating organizations to impact change because the risk-to-reward ratio feels favorable.
It’s women who plan domestic travel for pleasure—some research says up to three times more than men—and our shops and restaurants in the Upstate are teeming with female business owners, managers and staff . Include a manufacturing sector inciting both business travel and residential growth and you have a community large enough for municipal infrastructure and qualified health systems, but still bantam in its ability to connect resources and influence consumers.
But also, no. The Upstate is not singular in how women influence foodways. We have southern mothers and grandmothers. When we think about who fed us, these are the women who come to mind. This work we’re speaking of—to bake and to be in kitchens, to staff markets, to reinvent yourself, to advocate, to feed students, to buy from farms, to run a business—is nothing new. It’s archetypal. Southern women do and with a third hand they’ll feed you or water you or comfort you or wave you out the door to try again. Southern women and food? That’s an age-old story.
The profiles that follow are merely a glimpse of what’s going on as female professionals influence what we eat and drink, at home and about town, in Upstate communities. We started with a list of dozens of notable women and settled on six stories that felt diverse in experience. What we didn’t expect was a single shared trait: surprise. Each woman was taken aback by our call, which we think means we chose well. These are not women who try to get their story out, who seek media attention or spend money on PR. They have sought out their positions— or crafted them from the ground up. These women are driven to succeed, wired to leave their mark, and unconcerned about who notices.
