Where are all the women?

It’s a Man’s World: where’s the female talent in our business and why are we stopping them from climbing the career ladder?

Half the population are women. Honestly; I don’t even need stats to support this. So let’s explore the role of women in our industry. They’re generally serving in restaurants or hotel front desks; some are managing, few are owning, frankly not many. Why is that?

I recently sat on a panel here in the Middle East and asked the question as to when we would get more female chefs at senior level; a female executive chef or celebrity chef of the calibre of Angela Hartnett.

One answer given by a fellow panelist was that some women make good chefs, some ‘can concentrate’ and do ‘quite a good job’. I felt a gasp in the conference room; we all moved swiftly on.

I’m glad to say that we have some talented and established female hotel GMs in the area. I’ve seen some female restaurant managers too but rarely do we find female F&B managers in hotels. Even rarer are female business owners and entrepreneurs, with notable exceptions like Baker & Spice, Kozi Africafe, Switch, Bloomsbury’s, Lime Tree and the original Cafe Ceramique and Steam Sum Dim Sum.

Where’s the female talent? There are talented chefs like Gabrielle Hamilton (Prune, NY), Clare Smyth (Restaurant Gordon Ramsay, Chelsea) Anna Hansen (Modern Pantry, London), Margot Janse (Le Quartier Francais) and Hélène Darroze (Connaught, London).

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We are fortunate to have some pioneers here, like Suzanne Husseini, Khulood Atiq, specialist in Emirati cuisine and Mahrukh Butt, Pakistan’s first female head chef and recently at Sheraton Downtown Dubai.

Ok, we know there are barriers in this region ranging from cultural to security and working hours, and yet we see a fairly high number of women in non-food retail management here.

The question is, why can’t women make a break through in our industry?

We can’t overlook the fact that this esteemed magazine and its sister publication are fronted by talented women. In addition, there is a good representation of female lecturers at establishments like Emirates Academy for Hospitality Management. What we want to see is more women influencing the future of the restaurant sector in the region.

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A woman’s touch
Women already dictate much of the buying behaviour when they are with kids (and husbands!) Now let’s take a female eye to concept creation, interior design and menu development. Perhaps women can deliver the industry more innovative design? More progressive menus with healthy edges such as gluten, lactose and additive-free items.

Internationally, we meet women in senior management roles in hospitality. In the restaurant sector, some of the most innovative concepts, in the UK for instance, were influenced by female entrepreneurs with successes such as All Bar One, Cafe Rouge and more recently Juliette Joffe (founder, Giraffe Restaurants) and Jillian MacLean of the stunning Drake & Morgan bar group. Even, McDonald’s President, Northern Europe, is female.

Michael Caines MBE, one of Britain’s most accomplished Michelin Star chefs, has launched the Women 1st Female Chefs’ Development Programme, which is government-backed and designed to address gender imbalance amongst chefs.

There’s no escaping this at Tribe where our team includes female interior designers, a nutrionist and a female uniform designer. It’s also notable that half our clients are female...

So what’s the fuss all about Stefan? Imagine an industry managed equally by both men and women. The result? In a word; empathy. You get a closer connection with your customers, men and women. If we had more women in the industry, you wouldn’t get ugly design with stark lighting and endless over designed F&B. You’d get menus that weren’t dominated by red meat and reflected the needs of vegetarians, food sensitivities and perish the thought... nutritional labeling.

There are even more benefits; women wouldn’t sign off uniforms that were tatty old polo shirts in shocking colors, staff wearing boaters and silly hats. You would get food presentation in foodcourts that was appealing to the eye, and had the same flair in presentation as clothing shop windows.

So how do we get more women in management?
Firstly, a sea change in attitude by senior management to break down the barriers. Or perhaps we take the long route and wait…. after all, the companies that survive are the ones with a balance of talented management. The losers can retire to their smoky gentlemen’s clubs and enjoy a steak and chips and brown ale wondering what happened to their businesses.

Stefan Breg is the founder of Tribe Restaurant Creators, which he set up in the UAE 10 years ago. The Tribe team has created and designed close to 300 F&B brands internationally. Previously, Breg has held senior positions with Hilton, IHG, Pepsi, Burger King and Ernst & Young. Visit: www.tribecreators.com