Burger King generated quite the controversy on International Women’s Day after declaring that “Women belong in the kitchen.” They were criticised heavily for the comment but the American fast food chain said that it was part of their campaign for gender equality.
Following the tweet, KFC Gaming responded with a meme that said that Burger King should delete the tweet immediately. However, the latter fired back saying, “Why would we delete a tweet that’s drawing attention to a huge lack of female representation in our industry, we thought you’d be on board with this as well? We’ve launched a scholarship to help give more of our female employees the chance to pursue a culinary career.”
The tweet was part of a campaign to change the gender ratio among chefs in the industry. Burger King said that only 20% of chefs are women. It said, “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.”
Feminists and women’s rights organizations have been working hard in recent times to change the stereotype that ‘women belong in the kitchen’. Despite the seemingly good intentions, it appears that the PR Manager of the fast food chain made the controversial comment on Twitter on purpose to generate a controversy which would attracted attention towards the brand.
It does appear to have succeeded on that front. However, it remains to be seen whether it eventually suffers as a consequence of the considerable social media backlash.