Tuesday, March 24, 2015

Sexism in the food industry

Last week, Metro News reported on an interesting project out of the University of Alberta. Four U of A students have launched an interactive website to track stories of sexism in Edmonton’s food service industry. More specifically:
High-end and high-profile restaurants that monopolize the industry often escape accountability in terms of sexism and other forms of discrimination within their workplace, marketing, and service. We hope to shed light on this disappointing trend by encouraging you to assess the places you choose to eat with a more critical eye.
The stories they have posted so far are pretty much what you would expect: hiring based on looks, wage discrimination, and injurious gender-based working conditions. Anyone who has eaten in a chain restaurant in Edmonton has likely witnessed this. Of course, sexism isn’t just limited to hiring and employment practices, as evidenced by the ad above, which ran in Singapore in 2009.

-- Bob Barnetson

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