Founders, distillers, scientists, journalists-turned-producers, fifth-generation inheritors, first-time entrepreneurs. Some run the largest rum operation in their country. Others are just getting started. All of them are doing the work.
Women have been building serious rum operations on every continent — in remote distilleries, city warehouses, and family estates going back generations, alongside brand-new ventures just launching. Grouped below by region, each entry links through where a live profile exists on our own map.
Co-founded by Kathy Irwin, one of Oregon's largest craft producers — built long before women in distilling became a talking point.
Caitlin Prueitt studied fermentation science at Oregon State before opening one of Oregon's first women-owned microdistilleries.
Anne Arasin's path ran through a volunteer stint at an Argentine nanobrewery to a Willamette Valley distillery, with the Pink Boots Society opening doors along the way.
Sara Brennan built a certified farm distillery at the historic end of the Oregon Trail. Named Best Woman Distiller at the International Women's Wine and Spirits Competition.
Kim Karrick's one rule — make everything from scratch. Rum arrived in 2023, built from Panela sugarcane with no additives.
Dr. Robyn Smith, a chemical engineer and former Lost Spirits distiller, uses techniques like dunder for rums as precise as they are bold.
Founded by Karen Hoskin, the world's first B-Corp certified rum distillery — now run by head distiller Megan Campbell and operations lead Renée Newton, distilling at 9,000 feet.
Olivia Stewart is fifth-generation on her family's sugarcane estate, distilling estate-grown cane juice and molasses into additive-free straight rum.
JoAnn Elardo founded Florida's first legal distillery since Prohibition, and helped pass legislation letting craft distillers sell on-premise.
Caroline Prato Zenny carries a four-generation Haitian Clairin recipe, learned watching her father distill in Léogâne, into her own licensed brand.
Danielle Zighelboim co-founded with her brother, sourcing El Salvador coconuts before building a Guatemalan-made rum proofed with fresh coconut water.
Victoria Wagner, a chemical engineer and research scientist, brings lab precision to her Biki's Rum line.
Suzette Fleming co-founded the county's first legal distillery. Flagship white rum made with imported Panela sugar.
Kerri Paun runs the day-to-day; their Navy Strength Spiced Rum has taken Double Gold at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Janet Díaz-Bonilla named her brand after the Mariel boatlift, honouring the Marielito community's resilience through her family's own journey from Cuba.
Tina Williford left a career in wine, bringing an MSc in Brewing and Distilling to sole ownership.
Jaime Windon founded Maryland's first licensed spirits distillery since 1972, later founding the Maryland Distillers Guild and helping rewrite federal excise tax rules untouched since Prohibition.
Erin Wright, a paediatrician, co-founded the town's only rum distillery — 100% Black-owned and majority women-owned.
Emunah Winer and Margaret Kerr-Jarrett, branding specialists who also built Casa Malka Tequila, blend and bottle a premium Colombian rum with a fully-formed brand identity from day one.
Bridget Firtle brought rum distilling back to NYC, inspired by America's colonial rum history — now relaunching in 2026.
Shay Wood co-founded Harlem Haberdashery Bespoke Spirits, an aged rum blend drawing on 18th-century American rum traditions.
Sisters Alisa Lawrence and Nilaja Young left careers in medicine and music to carry on their grandfather's recipe — one of the few Black women-owned distilleries in the US.
Cleo Farman named the brand for La Diablesse, a Caribbean folklore figure — widely recognised as the first female-owned rum brand in the UK.
Rebecca Allinson and Lindsey Harrison's Yorkshire Spiced draws on Parkin, the region's traditional gingerbread cake.
A women-owned independent bottler. Founder Jaspreet Kaur Ward is recognised as the first British South Asian woman to independently own a UK rum brand.
Katherine Jenner's brand identity was forged, literally — a fire that destroyed her father-in-law's toffee apple business became the story behind a smoked, apple-wood-aged rum.
Gemma Wakeham is the commercial force behind the world's first carbon-negative rum distillery, offsetting every gram of unavoidable emissions.
Jacine Rutasikwa, believed to be the UK's first Black female distillery owner, blends her husband Paul's Ugandan heritage with her own Jamaican roots — distilled from scratch on African sugarcane molasses.
See Matugga on our map →Birgitta Schulze van Loon created what's recognised as the first Hanseatic rum, drawing on Bremen's centuries as a trading port.
Alexandra Dorda-Marcu blends her Filipino mother's heritage with her Polish father's distilling legacy — he co-founded both Belvedere and Chopin Vodka.
Kalyn Fletcher inherited one of WA's oldest rum distilleries from her father, and now runs it with a predominantly women team, producing close to 200,000 litres a year.
Keri Algar left journalism to become sole founder and head distiller, distilling during the July–November cane season.
Chanel Melani and Sally Carter's debut blends five Venezuelan rums finished with locally harvested bunya nuts — a distinctly Australian take on a Spanish-style base.
Janet Charteris even designed the bottles to fit comfortably in women's hands — a detail that came straight from female bartenders.
Delphine Gardère became the fifth generation of her family to lead Haiti's most celebrated rum house in 2017, taking over as CEO after her father's passing.
See Barbancourt on our map →This is a snapshot, not a finished list — the real landscape keeps growing. What's consistent across every entry: real people, building real businesses, in a category that hasn't always made space for them. We define women-owned as majority female ownership of 51% or more.
Compiled from published rum-industry research and brand-published information, presented in our own words for this project — a concept demonstration of what curated, well-organized rum content can look like. Not independently verified against every claim; treat details as a starting point, not a certified record.