I started an apprenticeship to become a chef 12 years ago. I knew nothing about the realities of a career in hospitality at the time.
The first female chef I met asked me if I’d like to know what it’s like for women working in kitchens.
It didn’t really occur to me that she meant I should prepare myself for sexual harassment and misogynistic attitudes coming from both colleagues and customers. It didn’t take long for me to understand why she had asked that question.
In my first year I worked with a chef whose fascination with breasts bordered on obsession. He’d watch the women who walked past the front of the restaurant and declare “boobs” as he squeezed the fleshy part of my upper arm. He once pointed out to me that my right breast was larger than the left.
Listen to the female CEO who has had sexual harassment allegations lodged against her. (Post continues after audio.)
As is typical of chefs, I moved on to a new job after a year, and a new job six months after that and with each move discovered that this behaviour was not unusual.
I worked in another kitchen where the sexist banter became too much for me and so I started to look for a new job.
I went to an interview at a prestigious restaurant in Melbourne’s inner north. I’d just sat down with the chef when the restaurant owner walked into the dining room and commented that it wasn’t fair that his interviews were never with the good looking girls.
I’ve heard male chefs list which staff members they’d have sex with, comment on the appearance of female staff, and tell detailed stories about their latest conquests. I’m one of the lucky ones – a new survey, conducted by the hospitality union, United Voice, found 19% of women working in hospitality have been sexually assaulted.
Trump Faces Backlash For Rally Comments About Women
The Quicky
Top Comments
I do a bit of casual work in a bar every now and again and I get hit on and inappropriate jokes and comments directed at me every singe shift I do. And every female bar tender could say the same thing. It's not something that anyone should have to put up with in their workplace and workplaces need to start throwing men out who hit on the staff and make them uncomfortable and firing men who do it to their workmates. It's not acceptable anywhere else, so why should it go on here?
Hey, MRAs, tell me again why we don't need feminism anymore? And about how women and men have equal rights?
Because everyone should be treated the same regardless of gender? Despite what you may think, I think most MRA's would object to this type of behaviour as much as feminists. They are 2 sides fo the same coin after all.
There is no place for this in a workplace.
I really hope you're right Feast!
A very popular MRA argument is that western women have achieved equality and that there are no 'rights' that men have that women do not. This article demonstrates that rights aren't limited to legal rights, but also to a sense of safety, autonomy and freedom, as well as actual freedom from the threat of physical and sexual assault.
yes, and that's why under every article like this, there is some man who has to say "what about the men".
Men don't get this the same treatment in their jobs and often dismiss women's experiences because it doesn't happen to them. There is denial among MRAs (and others) that this is even a thing for women.