"There's no doubt women have come a long way, and some of today's women are choosing to celebrate their expanded economic and social horizons by lighting up a stogie."

By Rhona Kasper

Restaurants USA, April 1996, published the article - The New Cigar Smoker: Women Aren't Waiting to Exhale.

"The resurgence in the interest in cigars caught the industry by surprise. The number of imported premium cigars sold has increased by 30.6 percent in the past year. Nobody saw it coming," says Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America in Washington DC. "The industry is back-ordered, and it takes one to two years to train a person to make cigars by hand."

And the new crop of puffers is proving that cigars' appeal is widening — women now represent a fast-growing market segment of cigar smokers.

Niki Singer, senior vice president of Cigar Aficionado, says, "Industry estimates of women cigar smokers are as high as 5 percent, and it's growing every day."  [end quote]

And that was then - and this is now!

More recently Business Wire reported in 2005,

"Cigar sales in the U.S. are growing at levels not seen in years, reports Cigar Aficionado magazine. In what appears to be a revival of interest in fine cigars, the imports of handmade premium cigars jumped by 12.3 percent in 2004, sending cigar imports past the 300 million mark for the first time since 1998. The 309 million cigars imported here in 2004 represent the largest percentage."

Submitted as recently as January 31, 2008, an article titled "Women in the Cigar Industry", by author Garson Smart reveals women are now carving a huge piece out of the cigar demographic and assuming positions of power at the industry's highest levels.

Janelle Rosenfeld, the Vice President of Advertising and Communications for cigar giant Altadis USA. Rosenfeld developed an interest in cigar smoking during the "cigar boom" of the 1990s, and left the pharmaceutical industry to work in advertising for Altadis (then called Consolidated Cigar Corporation), according to an interview published recently in Cigar Magazine.

Lisa Figueredo, in 2005 started Tampa, Florida's, only cigar specialty mag, Cigar City Magazine.

Mariana Miranda is one half of the husband-and-wife team that owns Miami Cigar and Co. With hard work, this literal mom-and-pop operation distributes cigars from Spain, Honduras and the Dominican Republic to the United States, and has done so since 1989. By 1995, they were clearing 3.1 million cigars per year in distribution. She grew to be, in the words of CA writer Shandana Durrani, "one of the foremost women executives in the cigar industry."

Raquel and Patricia Quesada - the pair of sisters who represent the fifth generation to the Dominican-based cigar company Manufactura de Tabacos SA (MATASA). They follow their father, company president Manuel Quesada, and three earlier generations in working for MATASA.

These hard-working women pave the way for further acceptance of women at high levels of the cigar industry.

"Women are no longer an "invisible presence" in this industry. Women of the cigar world, we salute you!"  Garson Smart

As a proud member of the cigar world and on behalf of my SOTLs, we thank you for recognizing us!

"Cigar Woman, 2008"

Cigar Bar360