Factors Leading to the Early Exit of Women Chefs and their Limited Presence in the Hotel Industryof Bengaluru

Historically male-dominated professions in all domains is tough to be penetrated by women, as men have always been unenthusiastic in accepting them in those careers they have been dominating thereby relegating the women to the background. The hotel industry, which is traditionally male-dominated, has been known for its vastly skewed perspective, since a miniscule proportion of the chefs are women. When women take up cooking in the professional arena, often they are met with countless challenges and limitations. Consequently, women chefs are still a rarity in the hotel industry, due to their early exit, thereby mirroring the deeply ingraining social and cultural prejudice against women as being the „weaker sex‟. In the present study, a survey (N= 123) among women chefs working in the Hotel industry of Bengaluru, India is conducted to determine the reasons for the early exit of women chefs, leading to their limited presence in the hotel industry. Women chefs were found to have multiple reasons for exiting the industry, namely, better work schedule in other organizations, better employee benefits in other organizations, enhanced reward and incentives, lack of adequate women friendly policies, and attitude of employees towards job satisfaction. Following the research study findings, recommendations related to improving the presence of women chefs within the hotel industry and also to enhance their participation within the industry is put forward.