How India's First Woman Bartender Set Out on a Career in an All-Men Industry

Over the years, women have been facing exploitation and violence at every step of their life. Even if they have reached to the moon, flying fighter planes or ruling the corporate the world, they are still becoming the victim of heinous crimes like rape, molestation, and acid attack. But many women fought against the patriarchal society, defied gender roles and redefined themselves in front of the whole world. 

In the 1980s when most Indian women looked on to their fathers and husbands to make decisions about their marriage, life and career, Shatbhi Basu without any actual intentions, was breaking gender stereotypes.

As the first woman bartender in India, Basu feels that bartending is something that you should do only if you are seriously passionate about it and not just because you want to break stereotypes.

As a young woman, bartending was not the first choice for a 21-year-old Basu. She wanted to be a Chinese cuisine chef. But life has a different plan for her. She recalls that Indian restaurants were not particularly happy with women working in professional kitchens at that time and so she had to quit her job.

As it was a totally male-dominant profession, men in the profession were not much happy with women invading their space. Shatbhi says that neither she had much knowledge about the industry, nor was she expecting any help from her seniors. The big break for Shatbhi happened when she was appointed as a bartender at Mumbai’s Chopsticks restaurant. Here she also got her on concoctions in the menu.

Shatbhi’s next milestone was to establish a bartending academy, but she lacked the resources. As a consolation to her bigger dream, she created STIR, an annual convention that offered seminars and live competitions for students.

Finally in 1997, Shatbhi opened a bartending academy. Since then she never looked back. Shatbhi has designed many bars in India and abroad including some in Singapore, Lima and New York.