I recently caught part of a documentary on the history of cooking classes (yes, I was watching the Food Network). I was struck by how the story behind something as basic as cooking revealed gender inequalities. Essentially in pre-WW2 America, cooking was seen as woman’s work. There was nothing glamorous or special about preparing food, it was just a means to the end of getting fed. The first cooking classes were offered to poor women to teach them a skill they could use to earn a meager living (generally as a cook/maid for a wealthy family). But after WW2 all of that changed. The men who had learned to cook as soldiers returned home from war and sought to earn a living using their new-found skills. All of a sudden cooking and working in newly created restaurants became a respectable middle class occupation that earned a decent living. But of course it was only after men blessed the cooking world with their presence that cooking earned respect as a profession. Even still everyday cooking is still considered woman’s work and gathers little respect, while professional cooking is dominated by men and is highly respected.
Hearing stories like that frustrates me. To be reminded of what low value women have been given historically is sobering. Our accomplishments and our work are deemed unimportant and not worthy of respect or decent pay (until men decide to join in as well). The cynical side of me wants to call for more men to be stay-at-home parents to see if that will actually raise the respect level for that particular occupation. I’m sure if enough men start doing it, they’d somehow start being paid to be a dad as well.
Not that I think any profession should ever be restricted to just men or women. We all should be given equal respect (and pay) for whatever job we undertake no matter our gender. But given the realities of history and our world today, that doesn’t always happen. Women often don’t receive respect for their work and are still the minority in many fields dominated by men. Often men don’t want to share the respect of their particular career with women (are they selfish or do they think we are not worthy?) or they don’t understand the difficulties women find when trying to enter those fields. So as unfair as some have called it, it takes men sponsoring/encouraging/endorsing/apprenticing women to help us break into those fields as equals for women to even begin to be respected in the same way men are. And while I don’t full agree that it is unfair to help others, in these situations the inequality is even more unfair than the assistance, so why not “be unfair” in a positive way instead of a negative way?
I know this is just a typical gender issues rant, but the documentary irked me. It of course presented the evolution of the cooking profession as a good thing no matter how telling it was of the rampant sexism in our country’s history. I just wish the story would be different every once in awhile.