53 Interesting Facts About The Number 53 #9: 53% of US Population are Women

As today Sunday March 8, 2015 is International Women’s Day, and as each Sunday I post an Interesting fact about the number 53, I went in search for an interesting fact about the number 53 and women.

And I found it! In fact, I found a few. But there’s no denying that the most important fact I found is that women comprise 53% of the US population (learned that here).

The theme this year for International Women’s Day is “Make It Happen,” and corporations, women’s groups, schools, governments, charities and people from around the world hosted over 1,000+ International Women’s Day events.

My event? I’m toasting two phenomenal International Women who definitely “make it happen” –wine that is!

“The story of women’s struggle for equality belongs to no single feminist nor to any one organization,” says Gloria Steinem, “but to the collective efforts of all who care about human rights.”

Sandra Oldfield grew up in the US and learned how to make wine at UC Davis; she now makes wine in Oliver, British Columbia, Canada at Tinhorn Creek, where she is one of the co-owners. I met online then in person when she came to the 2012 Wine Bloggers Conference to entice us to visit her for WBC13 in Penticton, B.C. Tinhorn Creek is one of the largest family owned wineries in Canada, and Sandra has been a wine-making owner for over 20 years. Tinhorn Creek and other wines from Canada are only recently readily available through mail order in the US.

On a much smaller scale, meet Sonja Magdevski of Casa Dumetz founded in 2004. Sonja’s family is from Macedonia and she grew up in Michigan where her dad made wine in the garage; now  she makes wine in Los Alamos, California at her winery Casa Dumetz.  I met Sonja April 2014–she wasn’t in the wine tasting room, but the beer tasting bar  down the street working elbow to elbow with her husband Emilio Estevez. Because of its small size, if you can’t get to Los Alamos (located between Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo), check out the Casa Dumetz Wine Club.

While I don’t know yet the percentage of women winemakers in the world, in California there are over 3400 wineries and only 10% or so have a woman as their lead winemaker. Read more about Sonja and Sandra at Wine Predator.

Happy International Women’s Day! Cheers!