WORKWEEK

Some of you (a lot of you) heard about what happened to me at Benzinga last week (somehow it was only last week). 

Basically – I was sexually harassed by a man in a pretty extreme way, about 30 minutes after hearing that the prior night’s party got “handsy after 10.” 

It just reiterated the struggles women face in business and some people’s strange desire for sexual conversations and happenings at business functions. 

So of course, the recent release by Yahoo Finance detailing women’s challenges securing cannabis business financing is no shock to me. 

“What has ended up happening is that as states have adopted more limited license models, it’s become much more expensive to get in the game. And so, it favors the people who’ve traditionally had access to capital, which are men — white men,” Wana Brands’ CEO told Yahoo Finance. 

Considering just 8% of cannabis CEOs are women – it makes sense why they aren’t being taken seriously. In 2019, women held 37% of executive roles in the industry and that number has quickly dwindled. 

If women aren’t being thought of as leaders enough to even get in these positions of power – simply expecting investors to take them seriously isn’t going to cut it. 

Recruiting more strong, talented, and passionate women to the cannabis industry is one way I think we can bridge the funding gap and place more women in executive positions. 

And women have a lot to offer this industry.

According to the recent Women in Cannabis study, 72% of women working in this industry are here because of their passion and experience with the cannabis plant.

Getting more women with proven, diverse backgrounds to join the space is step one.