[viaToday is International Women’s Day and, while Burger King intended on celebrating the day by announcing a new scholarship program to fund their female employees’ dreams of becoming chefs, their announcement was pretty misguided. Unfortunately, while the company’s intent was pure, their execution has been widely criticized as the trend continues to grow.
“Women belong in the kitchen,” tweeted the official U.K. account for Burger King on Monday. The tweet was the first in a series announcing the new scholarship, but it has been picked apart as “misogynistic”. “If they want to, of course,” BK later clarified. “Yet only 20% of chefs are women. We’re on a mission to change the gender ratio in the restaurant industry by empowering female employees with the opportunity to pursue a culinary career. We are proud to be launching a new scholarship programme which will help female Burger King employees pursue their culinary dreams!”
The message has been retweeted over 240,000 times as people are reacting to it in droves.
Complex reached out to Burger King for a statement, to which they said, “It was our intention to undermine an outdated stereotype about women and reclaim the terminology, in order to highlight a big problem in the restaurant industry – that women occupy only 20 percent of chef positions in UK restaurants today, which we believe is offensive. The campaign’s aim is to continue the important conversation around gender inequality within the culinary field.”
Do you think they succeeded? Check out some of the reactions below.