First+draft

 First draft “Why was the woman crossing the road? Who cares? What is she doing out of the kitchen?”  To many people this joke may seem funny because since the beginning of time women have been relied upon as the families source of nutrition. They have been expected cook, clean, and basically live in the kitchen. Except when seen as the Head Chef of a professional kitchen, because they scarce. To some this joke is funny, because it is true in the household kitchen, but in reality it is not.  Traditionally, women have been established as the person in charge of food preparation and cooking. They were expected to stay home and cook the bacon that their male counterparts worked to bring home. This stereotype has been perpetuated over the past one hundreds of years by advisements, media, and society (Preserving Domesticity: Reading Tupperware in Woman's Changing Domestic, Social and Economic Roles, Vincent). Over the years the role of a woman has changed, they spent less time in the home and more time working, going to school, and earning their own income. Even so the stereotype of women inside the home has remained the same. Men, on the other hand, have taken over the culinary world outside the household kitchen. They hold many of the Head Chef titles at restaurants, own restaurants and are featured in the media through, TV shows, publications and advertisements. Women have been discriminated against working in many professional kitchens (Women Gain Major Roles In Restaurant Kitchens - NYTimes.com, Scholem). Even the U.S. government claims that a Chef is a nontraditional female job (What Male Chefs Should Know: A Woman's Place Is in the Kitchen, White). This double standard has made it difficult for women to be employed as head chefs in the modern day restaurant kitchen.  In the 1900’s an average of 44 hours a week was spent on preparing and meal clean-up (Food and Rural Economics Division: Economic Research Service , Bowers). As technology advanced to the household kitchen, developments such as cook tops, microwaves, refrigerators and dishwashers, reduced the time spent in the kitchen. By 1975, meal preparation and cleanup had dropped to just 10 hours a week (Food and Rural Economics Division: Economic Research Service, Bowers). Because less time was spent in the kitchen, there was more time for women to do things outside the home. Women in the 1920’s were more likely to be employed, and more likely to have attended high school. Women started to take classes and teach others how to cook. Home economists were a growing group of women who were finding a place in women’s colleges and public high schools (Preserving Domesticity: Reading Tupperware in Woman's Changing Domestic, Social and Economic Roles, Vincent). Starting in 1920, women could also vote. Women’s rights and education was a combination that set them on a fast track out of the kitchen and in to classrooms and office buildings. By the 1940’s, nearly 90 percent of high school girls took home economics, and a record 35 percent of women were in the labor force, including a quarter of all married women (Food and Rural Economics Division: Economic Research Service, Bowers). This trend was strengthen by WWII, when many of the men previously in the workforce were sent to fighting in the war. Despite this wartime necessity, women still were expected to return to their household duties. The press put out fliers to remind women of their role in the home for fear that women might be taking jobs from men. Government pamphlets and advertisers during World War II offered advice on how women could win the war on the “kitchen front”, and after the war women’s magazines reinforced the traditional ideal of women as homemakers and mothers ( What Male Chefs Should Know: A Woman's Place Is in the Kitchen, White ). Other magazines even described the ideal wife, as someone who was smart, well-educated, could cook and do house work well, and spent lots of time with the children ( Glass Ceilings in the Land of the Rising Sons: The Failure of Workplace Gender Discrimination Law and Policy in Japan , Goff). Advisements like this enforced imagines of how women should look and behave. Most women fell into these stereotypes because of the influence from society. Even today, modern day women continue to suffer under these stereotypes.  http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/main.htm <span style="line-height: 200%; margin: 1em 0px 0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Of the 122 million women who are 16 and over in the U.S., 49.2 percent were labor force participants as of 2009, and by 2018 they are predicted to account for 51.2 percent (Cooking,  //Wales)////. // This upward trend of women in the labor is similar to the trend seen in women’s attendance of college More highly educated women are working. This would be a good thing if they were not making 70 cent to every dollar a man makes. Inequalities in the work place are seen in many industries. Men hold the top positions as fashion designers, CEO’s, and doctors. Nearly 50 percent of culinary students in the country are women in nation's restaurant. Out of culinary school men hold 75% of the head positions in the professional kitchen, When looking at the gender of First-line supervisors/managers of food preparation and serving workers the statistic changes dramatically to 58.5% females and 21.5% males, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics ( <span style="color: #231f20; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Current Population Survey, U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">). Some factors include the media, family history, and women’s self perception of gender stereotypes allow the discrimination in the place of work to continue. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Carol Gilligan, a professor at New York University, has a theory as to why history remains unchanged for so long. She believes that as a young woman goes through puberty, her self-esteem drops significantly, because she is starting to understand what it means to grow up and be an adult. For the adolescent female, this means becoming being responsible and taking on the tasks of a woman. Professor Gilligan calls this change "hitting the wall," because this wall is made from blocks of negative messages a young women receive from society about their bodies, minds, and worth. They use media sources to gain the information about being a woman in today’s society ( <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Self-Esteem and Young Women, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention). Young women can watch any program on any channel from MTV to The Food Network, and see blatant sexism. From these TV shows, young women see how society wants adult women to look and behave. These young girls are directly influenced by these shows. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">On today’s culinary shows, both men and women are featured, but the way they cook and the setting of their shows varies significantly. Chefs like Giada De Laurentiis, who studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris, France. She now has an Emmy cooking show called, Everyday Italian, which features quick, healthy and satisfying Italian dishes (Giada De Laurentiis, Food Network). Many other celebrity chefs like Laurentiis, host their cooking shows home kitchen setting. They also feature shows that cater to the busy mom schedule. This detracts the focus from the audience’s focus from technical and high quality cooking, to a more nurturing and time efficient meal. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The male equivocate to chef Giada De Laurentiis, is Emeril Lagasse. He graduated from Johnson & Wales University, and the university awarded him an honorary doctorate. His style of cooking is based Creole, but also is influenced by Asian and Portuguese cuisine (Emerilology: Biography, Emerils.com). He is also well recognized for his catch phrases like “BAM” when adding spices to his meals. His show also presented is a home style setting. The type of food he cooks might be different that Giada, but they both are well educated chefs that focus on easy meal at home. The major difference between these chefs is that Emeril is much more renowned for his cooking and his show. The setting of their shows might be the same but there is a definite difference in their recognition by the public. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">While some cooking programs show you how to cook in your home, the highly male dominated show on The Food Network highlight complicated meals with competitive high quality chef, such as Marc Forgioneis, the newest member of Iron Chef. Iron Chef is a battle between a one of the seven iron chefs and a well-established competitor. The show takes place on a stage as chefs fight to preserve their credibility as a culinary mastermind. This show has only one female iron chef, Cat Cora ( <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Iron Chef, Food Network). Another competition TV show, Dinner Impossible, is hosted by Michael Symon. The challenges he presents takes place in a restaurant kitchen. Symon’s captivates his audience as he is forced to fulfill very large food orders in a small about of time ( Michael Symon, Food Network). <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The way men, and women are viewed on TV, and more specifically the food network, are drastically different. The cooking shows that are in a high tense cooking setting are more exciting and appealing to a wider audiences. In a study, researchers found that 60% of the all the views of the Food Network’s are women, but during the primetime viewing section, from 7:00 pm to 11:00 pm, 71% of the shows feature male chefs, while a only 29% of the cooking time is allotted to women chefs. ( <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Gender and Race Disparity on the Food Network, UNC ). The differences in air time is significant, and confusing because most of the people who are watching the shows are female. These shows promotes the wrong message about the differences in cooking styles based upon gender. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">One woman who broke the gender barrier was Julia Child. Her revolutionary cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and her TV program The French Chef, brought America’s attention to the classic French cuisine. She begans at the Office of Strategic Services as a <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">research assistant in the Secret Intelligence division (McWilliams, Julia Child Biography). <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">After receiving many awards for her work with OSS, Child went to study at Le Cordon Bleu in France. Her six feet and two inch stature made some question her likeability as a TV star, but The French Chef was the first out of Thirteen shows Child hosted. It premiered on PPBS is 1963, and was one of the first ever cooking shows (McWilliams, Julia Child Biography). She was criticized by some for her love of butter, and her looks, but Julia Child inspired many to follow in her footsteps. The complicated and lavishness French meals were made simple by Child. She did not teach the public how to cook quick meals for the family on the run, she taught the public that they cook also cook French food easily. Today most of her shows are off the air, but her recipes can still be found in any of her 19 published cookbooks (McWilliams, Julia Child Biography). <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"> Women like Julia Child are the only way to change our society’s view of women chefs. There is not one quick and easy way to change what the past thousand years has enforced about cooking, but there is still time to make a difference. The way children are raised, women fall into stereotypes, or are simply not aware of the problem, are three problems that have easy solutions. By trying to counteract these problems the future will be immediately changed for the better. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">One way to counteract the injustices that plague our generation of females is start with our youth. Raising awareness at a young age can help our children avoid these stereotypes and treat everyone as equals. Lisa McKiney, a culinary teacher at Newton North High School, has also felt discrimination in the past while working in various kitchens, but is changing the future by teaching important life lessons to her three sons. Once a week one of her children chooses and cooks the family’s evening meal. They cook anything from deep fried cod to broiled potatoes. The life lessons continue as her children are also expected to do the household laundry. She explained that no matter where they are or who they marry, they should know how to do these basic household tasks. It is families like this that will help change our future, because these three boys have changed their way of thinking and will carry these lessons on to their families. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">Another problem with a tangible solution is women who fall into gender stereotypes without knowing. Many women do not question why this division of labor as unfair; they simply go along with it. Of course there are things that some women cannot do while men can, and vice versa. It is important to understand that one person cannot do every task, especially in a kitchen, but that is why there are so many other people in that kitchen. Stereotypes like women cannot lift heavy pots, or handle the high pressure situations that take place in the kitchen were made to keep women out of the kitchen in the head positions, and that is exactly what it is doing. To rebel and work to offset these stereotypes is what every woman needs to do, change the way society thinks. Tara Sophia Mohr a writer and leadership coach for women, explained that there is a negative perception associated with stereotypical emotions for a woman. They are “caring”, “family oriented”, or “emotional”. Society values the male attributes more in a business setting like, “strong” or “cut throat”. In order to have more women in high positions, policies and attitudes in the work place need to change. They need to celebrate both male and female contributions. If the work place changes, so will the people, and that is one step closer to a gender equal kitchen. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">The final solution is awareness. If women are aware of the problems around them, they will be more likely to want a change. Professor Davi, who teaches at Bentley University, and works with people on campus to help them gain a better understanding of their gender and the gender of the people around them. By doing this she is exposing the problems. That consequentially is quickest way to get the ball rolling, understanding that there is a problem. When dinning out for food, look and see who is the head chef, and see who is cooking the food. It is a difficult process, because out of about 20 Mexican restaurants, for example, only three will have a female head chef. Calling before hands when scheduling a reservation, also ask the gender of the head chef. This might seem tedious, but the extra effort is needed to ensure that women head chefs are celebrated for their hard work. Groups like Women Chefs and Restaurants, WCR, is also a good way to find different restaurants in across the U.S. with women chefs. By being aware and putting in the effort women chefs can be rewarded. This support from the community can inspire others to follow. <span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;">There is gender stereotyping in the culinary arts. In the past women did most of the cooking in the home, but rarely were found in the kitchens of restaurants. Today there are a much more equal number of men and women in the culinary arts, but head chef position is mainly filled by men. There are factors to this problem such as the media and societies influences, but there are also solutions to these problems. Raising the youth to be aware, so they change the future is only a small fraction of the solution. With the help of both men and women working together to create a gender neutral work space, is the only way to make our future a better place. n