Meghan Ireland always loved chemistry, but as a first-year college student studying chemical engineering, she did not know she could channel her passion for science into the art of making whiskey.

It took stumbling across an article about a female chemical engineer who became a master whiskey distiller for something to click. While Ireland’s fellow students could go into plastics and pharmaceuticals, she was going into whiskey.

“It was kind of like a connection of, ‘Hey, I can see someone who looks like me, who has the same exact kind of education and background doing this job,’ and kind of opened it up as an option,” says Ireland, who is now the chief blender behind whiskey brand WhistlePig, based in the US state of Vermont.

Ireland is among a growing number of women who have become leaders in a traditionally male-dominated industry that has not always welcomed outsiders.

Increasingly, women are launching their own brands and finding new ways to innovate in distilling and blending at a time when more women are drinking whiskey.

There is a common, lingering doubt among some male colleagues and consumers that the women gaining expertise in the industry even like whiskey.