Cigars industry VS Women
The Role of Women in the Cigar Industry Through the Ages
The Role of Women in the Cigar Industry
The history of cigars and the industry surrounding them is quite often associated with heraldry, pleasure and luxury and recognized dominance through a prism of masculinity and elite culture.
However, this whole picture hides the role that Women have played in the cigar industry which was special, important and evolving.
From the first (native) crops, 19th century factory work and labor activism, to her current modern role
the following article -through key historical periods- mentions and highlights their contributions, challenges and progress made towards gender equality, to the renewal and leadership of Women in the modern world of premium cigars.
A rich and complex history where her contribution and her participation is a key, main and often decisive role that shaped, improved and developed the global cigar industry.
I. Origins: Women in Early Tobacco Cultivation / Taíno and Arawak Societies - A historical Overview
The active role of Women in the tobacco industry historically begins with its earliest cultivation in America.
The Taíno and Arawak tribes – indigenous Women in pre-Columbian societies – had a major and active role in the cultivation and use of tobacco.
Arawak is a more general term that includes groups of indigenous people who speak Arawakan languages. The Taíno are a subgroup of the Arawak who lived mainly in the Greater Antilles (especially Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Jamaica).
The Taíno and Arawak as peoples were among the most prominent indigenous groups in the Caribbean and were parts of North and South America before acquaintance and contact with European civilization. Women in these societies had an active and leading role in agriculture and especially in tobacco cultivation.
In addition to food preparation – planting, tending and harvesting crops (cassava, corn, beans, sweet potatoes, cotton, tobacco) – they used a system in the fields called conuco which involved mounds of soil that were used to grow crops, a technique that was sustainable and brought fertility to the soil and prevented erosion.
Tobacco (called cohiba by the Taíno) was considered particularly important not only for its economic influence but also ritually.
After its drying tobacco had a main role in ceremonies for divination, healing and communication with spirits especially by shamans (behíques), a male-dominated use where Women participated in ritual life but at the same time had an active role as herbalists or midwives and transmitted this knowledge through families.
In Taino culture cohiba tobacco was a sacred plant. It was smoked or given as an offering to the spirits (zemis) by carrying it with prayers to the gods or ancestral spirits. This ritual was done either by inhaling the smoke through y-shaped pipes, or by smoking rolled-up joints – an early form of the evolution into cigars. Colonization brought the destruction of many indigenous communities.
A large number died from the emergence of new diseases that the natives were not immune to (measles and smallpox), many died of overwork or starvation (a result of the encomienda system, forced labor of the Natives on plantations), others were murdered or died defending their land.
Today small Arawak communities have survived in areas such as Venezuela, Colombia, Brazil, Guyana and Ecuador but they are very few in number.
However, the knowledge, Taíno and Arawak in agriculture and spiritual practices mainly in the cultivation of tobacco but also the respect for these practices left a lasting impact of knowledge and heritage that was rooted in indigenous know-how.
This know-how was passed along with the global spread of tobacco where much of it comes from the knowledge possessed and passed down by indigenous Women.
(There are no authentic pre-Columbian photographs of Taíno or Arawak Women, as photography was not invented until the 19th century — long after European colonization had destroyed many indigenous Caribbean societies).
In the 16th and 17th century- along with European colonization- tobacco was considered an important and useful crop in colonies such as Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Virginia in North America. These plantations and their cultivation were done entirely by slave labor of which a large number included Women.
In areas such as the Caribbean and the American South the first stages of tobacco leaf processing (drying, fermentation, sorting) in the fields were done by African slaves. The work of these Women – although largely invisible in historical records – was integral to the early success and spread of the tobacco trade.
"Burgert Brothers was Tampa's leading commercial photographic firm from 1917 to the early 1960s. Established by brothers Al and Jean, the studio focused primarily on photographing the Tampa Bay area, including Ybor City, Port Tampa, Temple Terrace, and Ballast Point. The Burgert Brothers' photographs captured Tampa's development from small town to major city."
II. 19th Century: Women as Cigar Makers in the Industrial Age
The 19th century, passing through the process of industrial development in parallel with mass production, presented significant changes in the cigar industry.
This industrialization transformed many societies throughout Europe and North America, opening up new avenues - especially for Women - expanding the employment of labor in cigar manufacturing.
This role, although initially neglected, was redefined, developed and eliminated to such an extent that it slowly-but surely- led to the redefinition of gender roles in the workplace.
The Rise of Cigar Manufacturing
Cigar production in the 19th century progressed significantly as tobacco became a commodity that had global appeal, particularly popular among men of various social classes.
The demand for the production of handmade cigars increased significantly in countries such as the United States, Cuba and also Europe.
The process of producing handmade cigars has its own time frames which are not short and requires a workforce that must have expertise, knowledge, manual dexterity and love for the product being produced.
Many cigar producers turned to this potential to give it to Women, who possessed all these characteristics, where their pay compared to men was lower - but they earned more than if they worked as domestic workers or in agriculture - and their employment became more attractive, especially to those factory owners who were looking for better profit.
Cities such as Havana, New York, Philadelphia and Tampa became centers and reference points for the cigar industry.
In these urban centers thousands of Women found work in small factories or small manufacturing industries, actively participating in all stages of production of tobacco processing and cigar production.
Cuba and Latin America
In Cuba,from the mid-1800s,Women began to work in large numbers in the cigar factories. Initially their role began as despalilladoras – leaf strippers – to remove the veins from the tobacco leaves and torcedoras – to roll the cigars by hand – an important role that demanded a maximum degree of skill and dexterity.
Sorting and packing was an additional role that required manual dexterity and attention to detail.
Until the 1860s, Women had an active and important role in industry as a workforce, but the Ten Years' War (1868-1878) significantly affected industries in conjunction with later movements that wanted independence, turning many of these spaces into meeting places for concerns and political debates.
Mexico and Central American countries such as Nicaragua and Honduras also established and developed cigar industries, although Cuba at the time dominated the production and distribution of premium cigars.
The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Honduras became major cigar producers in the late 19th and early 20th century.
United States
In the US cities such as Tampa (Ybor City) and Key West in Florida became leading cigar producers with a considerable labor force coming from immigrants from Cuba and Spain.
And here Women - many of them immigrants -formed the backbone of the workforce with often less prestigious roles, but were known for their speed, discipline and attention to detail, thus slowly upgrading their participation in all stages of the production process.
Working conditions were difficult but their participation in the factories offered an initial economic independence and laid the foundations for an early labor activism.
In the early 20th century Women working in the cigar industries demanded better payment and working conditions -and especially respect-by actively participating in labor unions and strikes.
Europe
In 19th century Europe cigar and tobacco industries developed and developed relatively quickly and Women as a workforce had a dominant role but difficult working conditions.
The introduction of tobacco into Europe was usually done from their colonies (e.g. Cuba, Philippines, India) and the processing and production of either cigars or cigarettes were done in domestic factories.
Important centers of the tobacco industry appeared in France, Spain, Germany and Austria-Hungary.
Women in Europe made up the majority of the workforce in domestic factories.
In the mid-19th century France, over 90% of workers in tobacco factories were Women.
In Spain, "cigars" became symbolic figures of working Women.
In Germany, thousands of Women were employed in small and large cigar factories.
Women's Work in the Cigar Industry
Work in cigar factories was often tedious and required a lot of physical ability, especially detail, speed and expertise.
The work involved stripping the tobacco leaves, grading them according to texture and color, grading and separating them, and rolling the cigars by hand, a process that required skill and expertise to specific specifications.
Women worked long hours in rooms that did not have adequate ventilation and their safety and health was not a priority and was considered a fact of no particular importance.
Cigar factories and mills became the original first examples of integrated workplaces where both men and Women worked together.
The roles were different where pay inequality prevailed, with men more likely to have jobs such as foremen or supervisors.
Another key feature that had a unique cultural significance was the use of the Lector (reader) in the cigar production areas, where he read aloud during the day.
In factories in Cuba and in immigrant areas such as Ybor City, Florida, lecturers read newspapers, novels, and political texts, keeping the workers informed, while often this entertainment was also educational.
It was an important practice that helped raise political awareness and education among workers in cigar factories, especially for Women, thus laying the groundwork for labor activism.
Economic Independence and Gender Roles
The patriarchal logic and rules of that time significantly restricted many Women.
But their work in the cigar industry, where they earned their own wages, offered to a small degree a little financial independence that helped them to support their families in some cases.
The communities of immigrants from Italy, Spain, and Eastern Europe to the United States, where they worked as cigar makers, were of particular importance to Women where their wages helped support the household.
This little independence had a social impact. Women working in the cigar industry challenged traditional gender expectations by simply participating in wage labor.
Images such as the "cigar girl" or "cigarmaker's daughter" became a model of recognition in literature and art in a symbolic sense sometimes romantic, sometimes critical, signaling the changing gender dynamics in the industrial age.
Labor Activism and Union Involvement
At the forefront of the labor struggles were Women cigar workers.
They were the first Women in industry in general to unionize and actively participate in strikes.
In 1864 the Cigar Manufacturers International Union (CMIU) was founded in the United States.
Although it was a male-dominated association, it had many female members.
Many of them in the late 19th and early 20th centuries participated in major strikes and protested wage cuts, poor working conditions and unfair treatment as cigar makers and the active role they played in the industry.
A strike for example that took place in 1881 in New York by cigar workers with a total number of 3000 people, a very large number included working Women.
These strikes caught the world's attention and interest because they raised issues of inequality at work and with their impact helped pave the way for more labor changes and reforms.
Many Women leaders emerged in these movements, who often found resistance not only from their employers but also from male movement leaders.
It was their persistence, strength and determination that led their voices being heard loudly within labor movements, proving their abilities for organized, collective action.
Ethnic Communities and Cultural Identity
Many Women who worked in the cigar industry were immigrants or daughters of immigrants and their participation was shaped according to the ethnic and cultural identity and image of each region. Areas like Tampa's Ybor City or New York's Lower East Side became synonymous with culture, language, political views and critical thinking.
The traditions they brought to their workplace greatly influenced existing perceptions and these spaces became places of cultural preservation and exchange.
For example, Spanish-speaking Women in Cuban and Floridian factories participated in discussions that were often started by the lecturers of the industries and related to topics such as socialism, anarchism and labor rights.
These Women had nothing to do with the passive image which had been created for the 19th century worker, but they were politically aware and had an active and active role in everyday events.
Conclusion
From the Indigenous roots of cultivation and production to the end of the 19th century and the new changes in the cigar industry Women shaped the industry in their different roles.
Whether as cultivators or leaf strippers (despalilladoras) and hand-rolling cigars (torcedoras) or in sorting and packing, their work and contribution has always been in the spotlight although very often it has not been recognised.
As figures Women cigar makers of the 19th century were emblematic within a wider context of new formations brought about by the industrial age.
Their labor and hands created cigars that supplied global demand, while their voices and actions contributed to labor reforms and discussions of bilateral relations.
Although their work was often made under difficult conditions and under systems of oppression and prohibition, they created conditions and spaces for independence, communities and resistance.
Their story and their actions are a resounding testament to the resilience and agency of working-class Women in a time of sweeping change – a chapter in industrial history that deserves far more recognition than it usually receives.
To be continued (Part 2.)
Important Notice
"This article features names, historical events, external links and additional references about the Role of Women in the Cigar Industry Through the Ages - Until the 19th century(Cigars industry VS Women - Part 1.)
If any of the prominent figures mentioned in this article do not wish to be included, please contact via email
Edited by Marios Krokos
Industrial designer