At a time when half of all culinary school students are female, yet a very minimum percent of chefs/ owners are women, industry insiders are working to show there’s still room for progress to be made in the name of gender equality and it starts in their own kitchens.

A Fine Line, a documentary that looked at the gender disparity issue by following one female restaurateur as she built a career while being a single mother, helped contribute to the conversation when it was released in 2017. Since time immemorial, women have been known to cook scrumptious meals in their home kitchens. However, the kitchens generating business, or restaurants in layman’s terms, have been largely ruled by male chefs and restaurateurs. Women restaurant owners for one reason or another have always been a rare breed. This stands true not just for India but the world over.

Breaking the stereotypes, women are now taking their culinary skills outside their home kitchens and are using their talent and entrepreneurial drive to take major strides in the hospitality industry. Family leave is just one of the issues women face in the workplace, on top of the gender pay gap, workplace discrimination and the list goes on. All of these issues are even more pronounced in the restaurant industry, where mentorship and opportunity are scarce.

Easy Said But No Cakewalk

For Kanu Sharma Bhatia, Co-founder of House Of Candy, as a woman entrepreneur in the F&B industry and as a 21st-century working woman, in the present scenario women might not have it as hard as women did back in the day. Having said that, it's no cakewalk either. “Over the past few years, we have witnessed a tremendous change in society's stance towards women entrepreneurs. In my brand, House Of Candy the general demographic of buyers is mostly women and children so it is imperative that a woman’s perspective is factored in all aspects of business, especially in marketing and visual-merchandising,” she shared.

Bhatia further commented that gone are the days when women were asked to remain within the restrictions of their household, maintaining ‘purdah’ from the world. They claim that support for empowering women from the inner circle and thereon has improved by leaps and bounds, but that's all in theory. “In reality, the positive shift has been marginal, albeit significant. I, for one, have chosen to celebrate the change, however slight it may be. I aim to keep the dialogue going towards making this issue so irrelevant that we can speak of it as something from the past day. The idea is to keep moving forward and lead a life on our terms,” she said.

Earning Respect for all Odd Jobs

But, many glitches have come up in employing women for service sectors mostly in F&B because of the administrational rules due to the mindset failure. A very easy example of this is when a few years ago the court passed an order that women mustn't be made to work post 10 pm and where they do, employers must arrange a drop, which led to a seven percent decline in hiring of women in the food industry. 

Due to this, one of the toughest shifts is the sight of women waitresses in restaurants. While the numbers haven't risen drastically, more restaurants like Hard Rock Café, Irish House, and even traditional ones now have one or two waitresses at some of their outlets. The game changers were quick-service restaurants like Burger King and McDonald's. Its crew has 30 percent women. They brought a work culture of equal opportunity employment (EOE), mandated by law in their home countries.

Mixing It Up In Man’s World

The shift although marginal is surely being seen. And not just women entrepreneurs coming forward in the restaurant business but many roles that had gender stereotype is seeing a massive change. Being in the liquor business and knowing how to make a drink ‘just right’ has often been thought to be a man’s job. Traditionally, it’s always the men who have been shown to drink or get drunk, even though many women, especially in urban areas, enjoy a good drink or two. But with more openness about women who drink, a lot of women bartenders have made their presence felt in the business, taking over the bar and mixing new and old drinks for their customers.

One such great example of women bartenders in India is Ami Shroff who is one of the pioneers for women in the industry. She started mixing drinks when she was a teenager, and today, Shroff is among the most sought-after flair bartenders in India, especially when it comes to events and parties. She took up flair bartending, drawn in by the theatrics around it, and has stuck to it for almost two decades now.

Butchering it Away

However, it is easy to accept a woman wearing an apron or a chef’s hat, but imagine her holding a machete or a long knife confidently at a meat shop without showing any discomfort at the smell of dried blood or poultry! We have women working in different industries, even in male-dominated ones like fuel stations. Many run paan shops, drive bike taxis. But running a meat shop is hard to imagine even at a time when women are storming the male bastions and emerging on top.

Running a household with her husband’s meagre income was easy enough to sustain with two decent meals a day, but difficult to secure the future of their two sons. That is when Shanti decided to come out of the comfort of being a homemaker and set up a makeshift pork shop at Kamakhya Gate in Assam. Today, she is a successful businesswoman in her own right. Her husband and her elder sister are diligently helping her to make the business more profitable.

More Acceptability Towards Versatility

Christine Samandari, Co-founder of L’opera also feels that gender stereotypes are not limited to any particular sector of activity, and glass ceilings are to be broken or have been broken in one industry after the other. According to Samandari, remarkably, the hospitality industry in general and the restaurant business have witnessed very encouraging developments which go well beyond the ‘typical roles’ which were reserved for women.

“Over the last few years, we have witnessed a growing number of female entrepreneurs who have created their own restaurant brands, have joined the industry as accomplished chefs and assumed senior managerial roles. There is no doubt in my mind that given the right opportunity women can not only equal their male peers but can outperform them thanks to their empathy, patience, intuition, and hard work. In other words, we are just at the beginning of an era which will see a growing number of women take their rightful place in our industry,” she expressed.

Sailing on the similar thoughts of Samandari, Aavika Chhawchharia, Co-founder of Honey and Dough encourages women employees to overtake most of the roles. At Honey and Dough, all the managers including marketing, HR, and sales are women. “People are accepting women entrepreneurs much wider than before after seeing so many women entrepreneurs being successful in every industry. Over time we have observed a better sense of equality prevailing everywhere. The dedication of women towards work is commendable,” she commented.

Crushing Orthodox Mentality

Mehrunisha Shaukat Ali, a woman from Uttar Pradesh's Saharanpur is an iconoclast for those who believe that woman cannot become bouncers. The 34-year-old works as a bouncer in a nightclub and handles frequent spats there along with keeping an eye on female customers.

Despite being a bouncer whose job is to handle untoward situations in the nightclub, her politeness is unquestionable. She has six siblings at home, three brothers and three sisters. Interestingly, one of her sisters is also following her footsteps. Shaukat started working as a bouncer in 2004 when she was studying in Class 10. However, initially, she was treated as a security guard instead of a bouncer, which she opposed strictly.

"I am the first woman bouncer in the country, I fought a lot to get this status. I used to get very angry when I was called a guard. But after bitter a struggle, I got the status of the first woman bouncer in the country," Mehrunisha mentioned who unfortunately lost her job during the pandemic.

Future Looks Bright

But, the road is yet long and untravelled to reach the destination of a gender-neutral workspace. As India moves towards becoming a gender-equal nation by 2030, the onus is on the stakeholders of the industry to be the catalysts of change. Lindsay Bernard Rodrigues, CEO, and Co-founder of The Bennet and Bernard Company opines that the restaurant business in India is one of the few which has equal employment opportunities.

According to him, restaurant chains have promoted gender inclusion among their workforce. It uses gender-neutral language in training materials. Many businesses are moving from a business-as-usual approach to an operational strategy that incorporates gender-inclusive and gender-sensitive value chains and this holds the key to creating a virtuous cycle of gender parity. 

A recent report by McKinsey has stated that women are an untapped source of economic opportunity. The McKinsey Global Institute showed that fully bridging the gender gap in the US labor market would not only be equitable in the broadest sense but also add 4.3 trillion dollars of additional annual GDP in 2025. This was 19 percent higher than the usual GDP. The report also states that diversity and inclusion, in general, are strongly connected to corporate performance, and for the food industry, the business case for diversity serves as a strong motivating force. According to Rodrigues, this is very true for the Indian economy as well.