March 28, 2024

Women Chefs: Does Gender Matter?

What can women chefs expect in the professional kitchen? The hearth of the home, or modern day kitchen has long been considered the domain of the woman of the house. Does this stereotype hold true through to the professional arena?

women chefsAs in most of the business world, women have had a very late start. With the insurgence of women into the workforce, the professional kitchen has seen the refreshing emergence of women chefs into this predominantly male dominion.

Statistics are still glaringly clear that there is a long way for women kind to go before true equality can be achieved. In the whole of the US, there are still a mere 92 of the 2,134 executive chefs. That is a paltry 4.3%. One need only to think for a time of the “famous” chefs that are featured on television, radio and in newspaper columns to see how small is the representation of female chefs.

This situation has caused a rising concern and awareness in the industry and associations such as Women Chefs and Restaurateurs have arisen. These bodies provide support, accountability and monitoring to the women chefs who are struggling to find their way to quality education and prestigious career opportunities.

Is it a tough workplace? With the exception of making their break into a field that is still surprisingly male dominated, women chefs are not experiencing any difficulties that their male counterparts are not also experiencing. Men are simply not restricted by prejudices that kept them from hiring female chefs in the past.

However, this statement itself does imply the underlying statistics that management positions are mostly occupied by men. Does gender matter?

In reality, women are at least as finely crafted to suit the chef trade as men. The matters that stand in the way of more women chefs reaching the upper realms of this career are the ones that are true of any field. The hours are long and demanding, family can often suffer beneath the pressure of job demands. Women chefs who have placed career as their foremost priority are making it to the top, but male or female, it is a long hard road.

women chefs

If you’re interested in joining the ranks of women chefs, be sure to request more information directly from these Culinary Arts Schools. Online degrees are available as well, yes, even in the culinary arts!

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