By Kaye Olsson, I Start Wondering Columnist
On a recent trip, I had the pleasure of watching an in-flight movie called Widow Clicquot, which told the story of Barbe-Nicole Ponsardin, the daughter of a wealthy textile merchant in pre-revolutionary France. Her father’s chief competitor was a man named Philippe Clicquot, who owned an estate next door. In an attempt to consolidate the power of their two businesses, Mr. Ponsardin and Mr. Clicquot did what any shrewd business owner in the 18th century would have done: they arranged a marriage between their two children. In 1798, when she was 21 years old, Barbe-Nicole became the wife of Francois Clicquot.
Instead of taking over the textile industry as his father had planned, Francois was more interested in growing his family’s small wine business in France’s Champagne region which, up until that point, had been treated as a mere afterthought. When his intention was met with disapproval, Francois dismissed his father’s concerns and set about learning the wine trade from the ground up with assistance from his young wife. Francois and Barbe-Nicole’s small champagne business struggled and eventually appeared ready to collapse. Then in 1805, six years after their marriage, Francois suddenly fell ill with a fever and died 12 days later.
Both Barbe-Nicole and her father-in-law were devastated by Francois' death, and Philippe Clicquot announced his intention to liquidate the company. The young widow decided, however, to take over her husband's business. While French law forbade an unmarried woman from owning a business, it did not mention the case of inheriting one. Therefore, Barbe-Nicole became one of the first female business owners in France. She began bottling champagne under the label Veuve Clicquot (the word veuve means widow in French).
Unfortunately, naval blockades crippled commercial shipping during the ensuing Napoleonic wars, so Barbe-Nicole was forced to smuggle the vast majority of her best wine out of France. When her champagne debuted in Russia, Tsar Alexander I announced that he would drink no other brand. Word of his preference spread throughout the Russian court, which was basically the epicenter for international marketing, and created a huge demand for her product.
At that time, the traditional way of making champagne was tedious and wasteful, so Barbe-Nicole created a new process. Instead of transferring the wine from bottle to bottle to get rid of leftover yeast, she devised a method that kept the wine in the same bottle but consolidated the yeast by gently agitating the wine. The bottles were turned upside down and rotated periodically, causing the yeast to gather in the neck of the bottle where it could easily be drained. This method, known as riddling, revolutionized the champagne industry and is still used by winemakers today.
By the time Barbe-Nicole died in 1866 at the age of 89, her company Veuve Clicquot was exporting champagne to the far reaches of the world, across Europe, and even to the United States. Veuve Clicquot helped turn champagne from a beverage enjoyed solely by the upper class to a drink available to almost anyone, greatly expanding her market.
From risking her inheritance on a failing business to gambling against a naval blockade, Barbe-Nicole built her champagne empire on bold decisions, a business model she never regretted. As she later wrote in a letter to her grandchild: “The world is in perpetual motion, and we must invent the things of tomorrow. One must go before others, be determined and exact, and let your intelligence direct your life. Act with audacity.”
I find the story of Barbe-Nicole very inspiring and admire her sheer determination to succeed in the face of tragedy. She lived in a society in which women had very little power or control over their lives. Her company struggled to succeed during wartime and came very close to bankruptcy. But her courage and ingenuity allowed her to overcome these seemingly impossible obstacles.
It makes me think of the many other women throughout history who have blazed a trail for us and changed the world. For example:
Ada Lovelace, an English mathematician in the mid-1800s who didn’t live to be 40, is credited with being the world’s first computer programmer.
Florence Nightingale opened the first science-based nursing school in London and is known as the founder of modern-day nursing. She lived to the age of 90.
The work of Polish scientist Marie Curie led to the discovery of the elements polonium and radium, which are used in medicine. She became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in 1903 and lived to be 66 years old
Hedy Lamarr, an Austrian-American actress and inventor, pioneered the technology that is the basis for today’s WiFi, GPS, and Bluetooth communication systems. She died in 2000 at the age of 85.
Margaret Sanger was an activist who opened women’s health clinics and coined the term "birth control." Her biggest achievement was getting the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to approve the first oral contraceptive in 1960. She died six years later at the age of 86.
Katherine Johnson, a mathematician, was one of the brains behind the complex calculations that helped successfully send the first astronaut to the moon in 1969. She died in 2020 at the age of 101.
Like Barbe-Nicole, all of these women were renegades who were able to accomplish extraordinary things despite the constraints of the male-dominated systems they worked within. They are a wonderful reminder to all of us that intelligence, determination, and hard work can often win in the end. It is also important to note that these women continued to lead productive, purposeful lives well past their 20s or 30s.
Of course, not everyone will be able to achieve such significant accomplishments that literally change the world. But I believe all of us can certainly use our influence to make a meaningful impact on the smaller world around us.
Thank you, Kaye, for this timely column. I appreciate that not only is this column a great way to kick-off Women's History Month (or maybe I should say Her-story instead), but it also reminds us that we can claim our authentic power to make a difference. It may not be easy, but few truly worthwhile journeys. With perseverance and resilience, we can succeed.