Get Inspired, Be Empowered Forums Gender Justice When a man cooks food it is called as an Art but when a woman cooks food it is called as her Duty. Why? Reply To: When a man cooks food it is called as an Art but when a woman cooks food it is called as her Duty. Why?

Mayuravarshini Mohana
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It is true that when man cooks, it is treated as a special feat. It becomes art, and most importantly, it becomes a career. The special treatment is meted out because it is something not expected out of him. On the other hand a woman is obligated to cook. No matter how much prowess she exhibits, it is hardly appreciated with exception to the occasional nostalgia when grown sons or daughters reminisce their mother’s cooking (it is too much sentiment showered too late). For ages women have been locked up in the domestic hearth while men ventured out to earn. So now when men turn their attention to cooking, it is treated as an expression of their creative faculty. It is common in Indian households for family members or guests to be extra appreciative when a boy cooks and highly critical when a girl does it. Also, ‘cooking’ for a man limits itself to making food. The part after that, the cleaning and the clearing up are most often conveniently forgotten.

Given that most men who cook are professionally trained chefs they devote much greater time and energy to perfecting their skills when compared to women for whom cooking is just one more of the million other duties they’re expected to discharge. Even in the field of the culinary arts, men get much more attention than women do. This sexism prevents women from getting ahead in their careers and most of them tend to discontinue. Speaking with Austin pastry chef Lisa Fox, a successful New York chef stated that most of the female chefs who worked in his kitchens did not stay long “because they hadn’t had the stamina for the job.” Such sexist attitudes, that measure men and women by the same yardstick when the latter has so many hindrances to overcome and domestic duties to discharge, have turned the culinary world into a boy’s club which women find very difficult to enter.