Is a women's place really in the kitchen?

I am sure everyone has heard someone utter the phrase ‘A women’s place is in the kitchen’. I expect that those who said it were attempting to be funny rather than really believing it but I do think it is a common view that women are expected to cook more at home than men. So why in the professional world of cookery are there hundreds of male chefs and only a handful of female ones?

It was recently International women’s day and in light of this I began thinking about why professional chefs all seem to be men whilst cooking is associated with women. I think the common suggestions may be that the atmosphere is too hostile and aggressive for women to hold their own, or that the hours expected of the chefs are too taxing. However I do not think these reasons apply to just women. In fact in my experience women are welcomed into professional kitchens as they have a reputation of being more organised and better at planning than their male counterparts. One of my chef tutors once told me that head chefs look to employ women as they change the atmosphere within the kitchen and make it a calmer place to work. Although it makes extremely good television it has been realised that screaming, shouting and swearing at chefs working for you does not make them work any better or serve food at a higher standard.

So could it be that women just do not want to pursue careers as chefs however much they like cooking? I hope this is not the case. From what I have learnt so far, to be a great chef you need to have an ability to pay attention to detail, be organised and have a clear head when under pressure. Not only are women capable of all these things, from the women I know I think we excel at these things!

In every job I am sure there is someone who likes to shout to get there point across, or someone who has a limited vocabulary so chooses to swear often. I am extremely sure that at least once a day the topic of football will come up within the office. But these do not deter you from working there.

I am arguing that more women should follow their passion of baking and cooking for family and friends and make it a career for themselves. There has to be the next Mary Berry out there who will take cooking and make it a ‘cool’ profession and inspire another generation of chefs to come.

So in response to the next person who says a women’s place is in the kitchen, I say, yes it is! More women chefs would be great and our men should be encouraging us if only for the reason that their Sunday roasts will become even more tastier than before.