Women chefs’ experience: Kitchen barriers and success factors

Abstract

Despite the numerous examples and testimonies in the Internet, few researches are made on challenges and success factors for women chefs. This study aims to identify the barriers women face and how they succeeded to achieve the chefs’ position. It also evaluates the entrepreneurial path, its motives, and the advantages it offers to them. The authors selected a qualitative approach. They organized a couple of structured interviews and two focus group sessions with eight entrepreneurial women chefs who shared and discussed their experiences and their points of view, based on pre-selected topics. From their perspective, women׳s main barriers are: masculinity, gender perceptions to their skills and capabilities, and work-life balance. To face them, they had to be resilient, to keep learning, and to prove their competence. They also worked on acquiring management and leadership skills and were completely dedicated to their careers at the expense of family and social life. Those who aimed for better balance moved to other niches of the profession or followed the entrepreneurial path. The latter, offered them better time management flexibility and opportunities for professional evolution. Studying women in management position in this Haute Cuisine field is particularly interesting because of the dichotomy of the cooking task, considered female in the domestic sphere and male in the professional one. This article provides a basement for later qualitative and quantitative research in order to research gender barriers and success factors for women to leadership positions.