How the Restaurant and Bar Industry Is Filled With Gender Biases Masquerading as Polite Service
Stop giving my husband the wine list and serving me first
I hoped in 2024 I would have heard the last of “ladies first” in restaurants but no, I heard it just three nights ago.
I hoped restaurants would have stopped pushing me and my chair towards the table, but no.
I hoped I would be handed the wine list or the check (or let it rest on the table for anyone to pick up) but again, no.
I truly believe feminism has come a long way in recent decades, but when it comes to service in my industry — hospitality—alas gender biases are very much alive and masquerading themselves as polite service.
And it’s harming the industry more than it thinks.
“It was acceptable in the 80s”
Whilst many other industries have moved with the times, hospitality is arguably not one of them.
Yes, there are modern joints that don’t believe that good service is the same as sexist service. My friend Rocco Pendola — an ex-bartender — told me he was trained to take an egalitarian approach to tables.
