Story at a glance
- On International Women’s Day, Burger King tweeted “Women belong in the kitchen,” echoing a sexist stereotype.
- While the company said it intended to negate the stereotype, it has apologized and deleted the tweet after backlash.
- The messaging was part of an announcement for a scholarship program encouraging much-needed female leadership in the industry.
It appears there is such a thing as bad press. At least Burger King thought so, when it deleted a tweet declaring “women belong in the kitchen,” posted on International Women’s Day.
We decided to delete the original tweet after our apology. It was brought to our attention that there were abusive comments in the thread and we don’t want to leave the space open for that.
— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) March 8, 2021
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The fast food company tweeted out the statement in a ploy to bring attention to female representation in the culinary industries, following it up with another tweet clarifying, “If they want to, of course.”
“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,” said the Burger King UK account in the now-deleted tweet thread announcing its new scholarship program to promote women in leadership.
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As many were quick to point out, however, not everyone would see the second tweet or get the joke, potentially perpetuating the very stereotype the company said it intended to question. So after swift backlash, Burger King apologized and deleted the original tweet, saying that “there were abusive comments in the thread.”
All the controversy over the language nearly overshadowed the announcement of the Helping Equalize Restaurants Scholarship, or the H.E.R. scholarship, which will grant $25,000 to at least two female employees or franchisees of Burger King who plan to enroll in an accredited two- or four-year culinary program or university in the United States.
While women make up more than half of the food service industry, according to a recent report, they only made up 18 percent of the food industry’s C-suite executives in 2018. Meanwhile, sexism and sexual harassment are endemic to the industry, although in recent years greater awareness has brought progress to the kitchens.
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