Gender Equity is Important to Accurate Spirit Evaluation

Gender Equity is Important to Accurate Spirit Evaluation

This may be the most controversial presentation from the NEAT Spirit Academy.  Why?  Many people confuse gender equity with gender equality, and few understand gender equity well.  Discussion always raises the ire of a few of those who belong to the “fraternal order of macho whisky drinkers.” Many cannot distinguish the difference between equity and equality. 

The spirits’ industry is also in general denial that an inequity could even exist. Worse, is the attitude toward female evaluation proficiency in the industry and the general public.

According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESDOC): “Gender equality, equality between men and women…does not mean that women and men have to become the same, but that their rights, responsibilities and opportunities will not depend on whether they were born male or female.  Gender equity is fair treatment for men and women according to their respective needs.  This may include equal treatment or treatment that is different, but which is considered equivalent in terms of rights, benefits, obligations, and opportunities.”  

Different genders have different physiologists, dimensions, needs, and senses.  To those familiar with developing a product from concept to market, gender equity is the key to a product’s success. A product or procedure cannot provide the best solution when it favors the physiological traits of one sex. This is especially when its dominant users impose it as the standard for everyone.

Designers who build products around one group’s characteristics may limit another group’s abilities. Industries create inequity when they adopt those products universally without considering physiological differences. By making equitable performance a priority from the beginning, companies can serve broader markets and avoid preventable revenue losses.

Here are some examples to present the concept of equity:  

• “One size fits all” the keyboard design for an octave span on the piano is based on a larger man’s hand. (Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, Schnaber, Rubinstein, Cortot, Richter, Lipatti, Gould, Van Cliburn, no female piano virtuosos in this group, could there be a reason?  What if pianos were designed for slender and/or short fingers?). 
• Some voice-recognition systems process lower-pitched voices with fewer errors than higher-pitched voices. Developers can correct this disparity with existing technology yet move slowly to provide equally accurate recognition across the full vocal range.
• Most automotive crash tests are conducted with dummies of male weights and proportions, placing women at risk of less protection from safety devices designed without consideration for female physiology. This includes shoulder straps, side airbags, steering column adjustments, brake pedal reaches, etc. (the automotive industry is getting better at this as lawsuit awards climb)
• Pregnant women still have to get out and shop and should be included in the use of handicapped parking (OK, add a few more blue signs, single pregnant moms-to-be still have to do their shopping even at 9 months in).
• Men generally prefer cooler indoor temperatures than women, with some research indicating an average difference of about 5°F. Because men have historically dominated engineering and building-management roles, workplace temperature standards often reflect male thermal preferences. Women consequently report more discomfort in overly cool workplaces. This difference demonstrates that one temperature does not suit everyone, but building managers can establish a more equitable compromise. Skew temperatures to the workforce gender population in different areas).

Raising Gender Equity Awareness

At first glance, none of these issues will seem the least bit important to most males, and even border on frivolous, but the fact is, that inequity issues exist everywhere from tool design to cell phone hand size to car seats.  Why are we pointing them out?  It’s not a rant, politics, or industry bashing, it is all about raising awareness that many products and procedures in our lives, are less than perfect and taken for granted, yet are gender handicaps that could be corrected.

Specifically, in nosing and evaluation, we believe glassware is another example that displays the lack of gender equity.   On average, women demonstrate greater olfactory sensitivity than men. Yet the spirits industry and traditionally male drinking clubs often overlook both this physiological difference and the underlying barriers that limit women’s equal participation. The female nose is much more sensitive to numbing by concentrated ethanol.  This is an elephant in the room, conveniently avoided with forethought, totally ignored, carefully tip-toed around during discussions, or dismissed as unimportant. 

By confronting the elephant in the room and implementing meaningful changes, the spirits industry can broaden its perspective, expand the market, and elevate knowledge above superficial, mythical, and biased traditions. Including rather than overlooking women will unlock one of the industry’s greatest opportunities for future growth. Industry influencers have this opportunity directly under their noses, yet many ignore it to protect familiar but scientifically unsupported practices.

Much scientific research has been published in peer-reviewed journal papers since the early 1950s which prove beyond a doubt that females in general possess more sensitive olfactory than males:

• Lower aroma detection thresholds (lower ppm concentrations at which aromas are detected)
• Lower aroma discrimination levels (lower concentrations at which differentiation between two detected aromas can be identified)
• Lower aroma identification thresholds (lower ppm concentrations at which the aroma can be correctly identified)

Physically, female olfactory superiority is no surprise, since Oliver-Pintero published a peer-reviewed journal paper in 2014, based upon an isotope fractionator count of olfactory receptors in the dissected corpses of males and females.  The data, with 95% confidence level, establishes that females on average possess 43% more olfactory receptors than males.  More receptors = higher sensitivity = better female olfactory performance than males.  

Independent Testing

Scores in the UPSIT (University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test) are higher for females than males.  Aspiring evaluators can use the University of Pennsylvania Smell Identification Test (UPSIT) to assess their olfactory abilities. Search online for “UPSIT” or purchase the test through Sensonics International. Although UPSIT does not focus specifically on alcoholic beverages, it provides an economical starting point for measuring aroma-identification ability across a broad range of odors. It also establishes a useful baseline for training and refining the sense of smell.

There are additional indications which lend credence to female olfactory superiority.

• The disgust emotion describes the female reaction to aromas which threatening their ability to nurture and protect the fetus and children.  Test: pour a tulip glass of any spirit 40% ABV or higher. Place it under a female nose with the comment “Smell this to see if you like it.”  Then duck quickly to avoid a right hook.  Men don’t usually react.  Instantaneous disgust emotion is characterized by a physical reaction, a sense of pain, and generally an oral comment of disgust.
• Repeated exposure (olfactory induction) to ethanol (and other compounds) lowers the female detection threshold, and men’s thresholds do not change.  In other words, learning by exposure develops a more acute sensitivity in females.  This may be a natural female safeguard reaction that ensures self-protection, procreation, and future generation safety.

Both of points are indicative that women have a higher degree of discrimination of ingestible compounds and a higher social respect for ethanol than men. As well, they have a lower tolerance level (also proven fact). NEAT combats gender equity.

Between 2010 and 2015, Arsilica, Inc. conducted A/B comparisons of the NEAT glass and a tulip glass at 17 spirits events. In 2,914 recorded trials, participants evaluated the same spirit from both glasses. Approximately 13% of male participants preferred concentrated ethanol at the nose, with a standard deviation of 2.23%. Fewer than 2% of female participants preferred it, with a standard deviation of 1.37%. The two-standard-deviation ranges showed a clear sex-related difference in preference. This supports—but does not independently prove—that women respond more sensitively to concentrated, pungent ethanol vapor. A significant number of females refused to test, stating they had no desire to sniff from the tulip glass.

Important scientific distinction: A preference test measures what participants prefer, not their sensory detection thresholds. Therefore, the results support an association between sex and ethanol preference or aversion; they cannot, by themselves, confirm that women possess greater physiological sensitivity. A controlled threshold-detection study would be necessary to establish that conclusion.

See the entire study.  Many expressed sharp pain from sniffing.  We assume those participants were not familiar at all with sniffing strong ethanol.

For many members, whiskey clubs and blogs have become a social feel good, same gender, fraternal camaraderie without the presence of female influences.  Some, rampant with sexist jokes and comments, are more about brand adoration than serious evaluation.   From the female comments in the simple AB test described above, one can infer that the peer pressure to drink from tulips may turn the prospect of membership in spirits clubs off for females.  Why not encourage female membership in spirits clubs?  The added sensitivity and diversity would add depth to group tastings.  

Social Club Remedies

Dump the myths, snobbery, and peer pressure. Stop expecting every member to use the same glass, abandon the “good-old-boy-jock” culture, and actively welcome more women. Everyone will have more fun, and the men may learn something beyond properly pronouncing Scotch whisky brand names. Many women-only whisky clubs take a different approach from predominantly male clubs, and some have even replaced the tulip with a tumbler.

Many women in the spirits industry—and many men with sensitive noses—have successfully adapted to the iconic tulip glass. As a woman-owned glassware research company, Arsilica, Inc. has monitored spirits competitions, attended spirit-specific events, and conducted numerous panel evaluations during the past 18 years.

• Gender inequity exists when tiny rim glasses are used to evaluate, and they quickly cause nose numbing.   Frequency is highest in blind tasting multiple samples (flights), females reach ethanol anesthesia (nose blindness) quicker than males
• Females can identify a larger number of aromas than males on average from a given spirit, at concentrations levels below male detectability.  
• Most competition judging panels consist of an inequitable percentage of females, usually less than 20%, yet they have superior smell-ability on average
• Examining female judge’s evaluation notes, they tend to detect, describe, and note more aromas and more detail than males
• More sensitive noses of both genders who have become regular competition judges prefer open-rim glasses
• In private conversations with female career industry executives, a surprising number prefer a simple tumbler over tulips yet will not argue with industry-wide accepted values, as the discussion is generally off-point, singles them out as rebellious or non-conformist, and dilutes their effectiveness.
• As discovered in the earlier AB test reference, a large majority of males prefer open-mouth-large-rim-diameter glasses, yet at home, they retreat to the fraternal tulip glass because that’s what their buddies drink from and that’s what they take to the club events.  
• There are many notable female noses in the industry who have successfully adapted to the tulip, and faithfully and successfully employ the tulip-developed safeguards against ethanol (wafting, breathe through mouth and nose, don’t swirl, add water).  They are much more diligent about using all the safeguards than males.  Observe and discover, that most men know these safeguards but do not use them.

A New Approach

Exceptional noses and adaptable evaluators can develop effective procedures regardless of sex, but why force them to begin at a disadvantage? Open-rimmed diagnostic glassware improves evaluation by removing an obstacle that tulip users must overcome through extensive practice. Even after evaluators learn to avoid concentrated ethanol in a tulip, the glass offers no orderly path for detecting aromas. Instead, they must search randomly through an ethanol-rich vapor cloud that irritates and numbs the nose. Refer to previous presentations.  Large rim glasses give the aromas a chance to expand, and naturally reduce ethanol concentration.

Recent efforts by many in the spirits industry to achieve gender equality in the spirits industry have been exceptional, yet there is still much left to do to improve gender equity.  Accommodate the employment and salary issues of inequality, but go a step further to ensure gender equity, and put superior smell-abilities of women to work.  Sensory training and olfactory testing for brand ambassadors should be basic requirements before they are sent to engage with the public.  Self-examination of company procedures and practices, internal anonymous questionnaires to female employees, and an unbiased approach may uncover a few surprises within your own organization.

If you are serious about nosing and evaluation from the scientific standpoint, we recommend you join the Society of Sensory Professionals and self-educate through the many beverage and sensory peer-review journals available. More about the NEAT Glass Team.

The NEAT Glass (CSO) Corporate Strategy Officer, inventor and entrepreneur, (CRD) Chief Research and Development Arsilica, Inc.

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