Women in Weed: Gender, Race, and Class in the Cannabis Industry

Abstract

The legitimate cannabis industry is in its developmental stages across North America, leading some to claim that this industry will be a "blue skies market for women" where they will have unfettered opportunities to take on influential and entrepreneurial roles. This discourse, however, ignores the reality that the cannabis industry is just as shaped by gender and intersectional inequalities as other more established industries. Drawing on interviews with five women leaders from various cannabis sectors in Vancouver and Victoria, British Columbia, I explore how gender, racialization, and class operate in this increasingly corporatized sector and how white, heteronormative femininity has been used to normalize cannabis consumption