Language and gender in female celebrity chef cookbooks: cooking to show care for the family and for the self

Media images and the gendered representation of chefs

“…The results also provide further evidence that, when they do appear in media images, women are often depicted in domestic settings and traditional feminine roles. The potential implication of this is that the media images reinforce the assumption that women's primary responsibility is in the domestic kitchen, thus perpetuating gender stereotypes in the profession (Bartholomew & Garey, 1996;Druckman, 2010;Matwick, 2017).…”

“…In a study of celebrity cookbooks, Johnston et al (2014) reported that male chefs have the image of being professional and skilled, while female chefs are portrayed as sexually attractive, feminine and motivated by self-satisfaction. Similarly, Matwick (2017) found that celebrity female chefs' cookbooks reinforced gender stereotypes by emphasising female chefs' caring and domestic characteristics and ignoring their professional backgrounds and business acumen.…”

“…There is also an argument that women challenge stereotypical views and engage in jobs that are considered more suitable for their counterparts (Statistics New Zealand, 2015;Vezich, Gunter, & Lieberman, 2017). In order to fit with the perceived standards and social stereotypes accepted for traditionally male jobs, it is argued that women, for example, may start employing more masculine speech strategies in an attempt to sound like men (Madichie, 2013;Harris & Giuffre, 2015;Matwick, 2017), or taking on aggressive male characteristics and competitive interactional styles (Bartholomew & Garey, 1996;Harris & Giuffre, 2010). This situation has also been found in the professional kitchen.…”

“…As Meyerhoff (2014) explained, women are often featured with characteristics including being weak and not competitive and this may limit their career development, constructing inadequate power and resources for women in the domestic economy, and further creating a division of labour. Therefore, differing media portrayals of male and female chefs could be contributing to gender stereotyping causing male-dominated segregation in the professional kitchens (Harris & Giuffre, 2009;Wright & Holland, 2014;Matwick, 2017).…”

“…Some previous studies have revealed male chefs' dominance in the profession through articulation of the wage gap between male and female chefs (Kludt, 2017;Lutrario, 2017), and the stereotyped portrayals of male and female chefs in cookbooks (Johnston, Rodney, & Chong, 2014;Matwick, 2017). In cookbooks, female chefs were portrayed as caregivers and domestic workers; male chefs were linked to masculine traits such as having scientific knowledge, professional skills and hardworking success (Johnston et al, 2014).…”