Is a Woman’s Place Still in the Kitchen?

The media machine still seems think that a woman’s place is in the kitchen preparing  dinner for her husband and children, while they sit and wait to be served.

What’s up with this commercial?  Though I find Goya commercials particularly sexist/momist, they are not alone in perpetuating a scenario that has greatly shifted in the landscape of American households—at least all the households I’m acquainted with.  I grew up in the 70’s, and my family didn’t look like this, now in 2013 I still see ads with mom acting as servant to her family.  There are certainly plenty of commercials that portray a more realistic view of modern family life, so are these old-fashioned, out-dated, and sexist ads really selling product?  Has anyone at Goya, or their ad agency noticed anything in the past forty years?

It’s not that I think women shouldn’t cook, I just think everyone should.  What I have observed over the last fifteen or twenty years is that as women have claimed their place in the corporate world, cooking has virtually disappeared.  I have met many, many people of both genders who have no idea how to cook anything more complex than a grilled steak, or chicken breast, minute rice, and toss their boxed salad mix with bottled dressing.  I’m glad that Goya is encouraging home cooking, though I question their portrayal of American families.  And I do apologize for singling out Goya, there are plenty of other companies and ad agencies perpetuating the same sexist scenarios.   The question often posed; Is it as good as mom’s?

As Food Network viewership had increased, the number of people actually cooking has decreased.  Cooking has become a spectator sport—literally!  Are you teaching your kids, sons and daughters, to cook?  Who cooks at your house?  

One of the things I’d like to accomplish through the recipes I publish, and this blog is the notion that anyone can cook good food.  That despite the fact that you couldn’t compete on Chopped or Iron Chef, you absolutely could put together a really wonderful dinner made from food that you actually cooked, using fresh ingredients.  You don’t need tons of ingredients, or tons of time to make some good food.  In fact, if a recipe has a zillion ingredients I’m not cooking it!  If you’re not a super-confident cook I urge you to try my recipes and those you’ll find on other blogs like Wine-y-Wife, Smitten Kitchen, 100 Days of Real Food, and the hundreds of others, and start with the simple stuff.

The kitchen is everyone’s place, the family’s place is in the kitchen, cooking, talking, doing homework and just hanging around, and learning to cook.  If you want to raise independent, self-sufficient, healthy, children, teach them to cook!