Women in Whiskey History

IN PROHIBITION, LADIES RAN THE SHOW

Getty Images

“Women bootleggers ranged from the pretty faces to the shot callers. They included one-time bootleggers looking to make quick cash and rich women financing ships hauling $100,000 worth of smuggled whiskey. Women were so good that, at one point, agents believed female bootleggers outsold the men five sales to one.”

WHISKEY WAS ONCE THE AMERICAN EPIDURAL

Getty Images

“Much like aqua vitae was used for treatments from the 1500s to 1700s in Europe, whiskey was the chosen remedy for coughs, runny noses, rashes, chills, fevers, and just about everything else. American pregnant women dosed up on whiskey to ease the pain of childbirth and to relax after labor.”

For more about the secret history of the fairer sex and your favorite drink, check out  6 Ways Women Made Whiskey What It Is, on Esquire.