Whilst in the domestic sphere cooking has primarily been seen as a female job, the advent of professional kitchens has seen them become a male dominated space. As gender equality progresses, there are improvements in the roles that women can play in professional kitchens, and there are several celebrity chefs that are women. Despite this, women still primarily carry out the cooking in the home. The association between women and cooking works in the domestic sphere because of lingering gender inequality, whilst the unsociable and long hours that are associated with working in professional kitchens are still seen as being more suitable for men, who traditionally have less domestic responsibilities.

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The primary sources planned for this paper will be articles written by both male and female professional chefs, particularly those that discuss the role that gender plays in their workplace. The secondary sources would include statistics and studies written about the number of women that cook in the home and the number of male and female working professional chefs. If possible, secondary sources that use qualitative results about the nature of cooking in the male restaurant environment will be used (see Bibliography).

The aim of this research is to answer some main questions. Why are women still more likely to cook in the home than men? How fast is the situation changing? How do female chefs feel about working the long and unsociable hours in the kitchen? How do female chefs feel about working in a male-dominated environment in general? What do men feel about cooking for their family and their wife after work? What are the opinions of men on cooking in the domestic sphere? How can this issue be addressed, if at all?
 

    References
  • Druckman, Charlotte. “Why Are There No Great Women Chefs?” (2010): n. pag. Google Scholar. Web. 13 June 2015.
  • Harris, Deborah A., and Patti Giuffre. “‘The Price You Pay’: How Female Professional Chefs Negotiate Work and Family.” Gender Issues 27.1-2 (2010): 27–52. Print.
  • Moskin, Julia, and Tony Cenicola. “A Change in the Kitchen.” New York Times (2014): n. pag. Google Scholar. Web. 13 June 2015.
  • Neuhaus, Jessamyn. “The Way to a Man’s Heart: Gender Roles, Domestic Ideology, and Cookbooks in the 1950s.” Journal of Social History (1999): 529–555. Print.
  • Short, Frances. “Domestic Cooking Practices and Cooking Skills: Findings from an English Study*.” Food Service Technology 3.3-4 (2003): 177–185. Print.