International Women’s Day 2024 – Women at The Top
For International Women’s Day 2024, we wanted to put the spotlight on some of the incredible women working at the top of their game within the hospitality industry.
Our founder, Alex Head, chose six women across different sectors within hospitality who have directly inspired her over the years. Here, we speak to them about challenges they may have faced being a woman in the industry, the many inspiring moments, and people they’ve discovered, and crucially, the most important piece of advice they’ve ever received.
Rav: I think no matter your gender, you will face challenges at work no matter what you do. It’s how you interpret those challenges and push past them that makes the difference. Being a woman isn’t a hard thing in hospitality, however, finding the right place to work can be hard. There are some incredible people doing wonderful things that I think the media could do better at shouting about. Hospitality can be the most wonderful career path, we need to stop slating it and instead start celebrating the good ones doing it well!
Emma: Because I work with such a broad range of people in this industry and the work can sometimes be very manual, I’ve certainly found occasions where I’ve entered a meeting, room or situation and people can overlook me (or other women) in the first instance, whether because of gender or age, or their perception of experience. In those instances, I like being able to prove why I am where I am, and why my voice should hold as much weight in that moment as anyone else’s. In my experience, predominantly many of the high responsibility roles within this industry are filled by women, but certainly as you get closer to the top, that weighting diminishes and most of the very top roles are still male dominated.
Miriam: Initially when I moved to Sri Lanka with the view of opening a boutique hotel, and coming from London – a place where the women’s rights movement has come such a long way comparative to Sri Lanka – I was concerned about being able to run a hospitality operation effectively as a woman. But I have found, after an initial period of finding my feet, that there is a lot of acceptance and respect here, and being a woman in the industry has not been a hindrance whatsoever.
Rav: I have a huge list, Social Pantry founder Alex Head is of course on it, along with Jokè Bakare of Chishuru, Rebecca and Daisy of The Dusty Knuckle, Lucy and Jemima at Wild by Tart, Chantelle Nicholson, Jane Alty, Jules Loti, Melek Erdal, Ixta Belfrage, Rachel Khoo, Skye Glyngell… I could go on and on, there is a huge list of inspirational women doing cool things. I have a new-found respect for business owners especially in this climate, for mothers who have adapted their work around having children and those who have carved their own career path out and continue to inspire the next generation.
Joanna: Alice Waters has always been an inspiration to me; for both her food and her restaurant Chez Panisse – focused on seasonal fresh produce, and traditional, simple methods – and her innovative and pioneering work in promoting teaching of growing and cooking in schools.
Chenai: There are a lot of women whose work I admire in the industry, however, in terms of a role model or lifelong inspiration, I always look to my mother and the example she led. My mother was entrepreneurial, determined, generous, principled – a diplomat by profession, she also owned a business at one time and still was able to make home somewhere we all loved being. She was the original hostess with the most – I get my love of all thing’s ‘celebrations’ and hosting from her.
Rosie: I love chef and founder of restaurant Leon Allegra McEvedy’s food values, and her desire to make good food accessible to all. I also love Mary Portas for her promotion of human connection and passion for service.
Emma: Doing everything within your power to continually broaden your horizons, thinking about the choices you’re making, and how they can impact others. Ensuring that within the work you’re doing and the sphere you have to influence, you create as many opportunities for people as possible.
Miriam: It has always been my goal to make my hotel, PALM, an inclusive workspace for women but whilst I have beautiful working relationships with my staff, I have found it very hard to hire women into the team, which I am finding sad. In Sri Lanka, working in the hospitality industry for women is often frowned upon by families, especially outside the bigger cities. The hospitality industry is male dominated, from Front of House to Kitchen, to Housekeeping. It will take a long time for society to change its perception of the industry and it will take a lot of work from all stakeholders to create a level playing field.
Chenai: As an event planner who specialises in private celebrations, weddings and parties, a lot of the wedding part of the industry is centred heavily on a homogenous and heteronormative experience. I’m proud to have a diverse client base, but I’m always struck by how all the marketing in our industry often doesn’t speak to those couples who aren’t straight/white etc. I am so privileged to work with clients of mixed heritages, same sex couples and always share their celebrations to demonstrate that high-end, luxurious, and bespoke events are also a part of their experience.
Rosie: We are all connected, and so we are only as strong as the wellbeing of the weakest person. It’s up to all of us to include and support those on the fringes, and only then we will all thrive.
Rav: Having a baby last year really made me question the maternity packages offered in hospitality, as well as the working lifestyle. Both my husband and I are chefs and met working in kitchens. I think if we were both still working full time in restaurants I would really struggle with the physicality of it and probably wouldn’t be able to jump back into full time cheffing right now. I wonder about the support, but I also wonder about the viability of suggesting that there should be the same level of support than what is offered in the corporate world. Hospitality is set up differently and I understand that. I don’t have the answers and some companies are really working hard on improving this but it’s something that I hope gets talked about more so that people can feel more positive about having a family and working in hospitality.
Miriam: We have always made it a priority to source wherever possible locally and from sustainably and female empowering businesses, like for instance our bath products that are produced by a female run and operated company in Colombo (Green Pearl Ceylon), or our pool towels by a company that creates employment for women on the East Coast (Rice and Carry). We also support charities that are supporting women, for instance Sambol Foundation that provides support to women subject to domestic violence.
Joanna: At Pump Street, making ethical decisions is central to how we operate because it’s the approach we’ve taken since we founded the business and have continued to operate in that way since we’ve grown. That focus was woven into our core values when they were set by our team a few years ago. The two clearest ways we inhabit these principles are by our direct sourcing of cocoa beans from small owner-operated farms and cooperatives with clear ethical practices, and by our commitment to reducing waste and using our unused bakery products in our chocolate bars. We believe that this work is never done; and revisiting our choices, from the farms we work with, to our packaging, our energy sources, and all the businesses we associate with – is something we do on a continual basis.
Chenai: It is probably an obvious one but just be your authentic self. I try to pay little attention to what other people are doing or allow that to influence how I do what I do. Ploughing one’s own field is the key.
Emma: I’m in an extremely fortunate position where the role I have means I can influence choices being made both internally and externally, in terms of people we book and bring into the show for the audience to enjoy. This year for example, bringing amazing women into the festival’s dining line up has been such a joy already and I cannot wait to see that come to life on the ground. So, continually making sure in those instances we as a team are thinking about who we are bringing in and why, and who we’re giving those chances to, is not only something that I personally feel very strongly about but know is an ethos that very much sits at the core of what we as a team are striving to achieve.
Rosie: There is gold in everyone when you look for it. With three prisons on our doorstep, one of the ways we can have a positive impact is hiring prison leavers. We get to offer a second chance to people who need it. In return we get great, loyal people. And communities are safer as there is less chance of reoffending. It’s a win, win, win.
Rav: When I was 21, I got told by a wealthy business person to “not follow my passions in order to be good at business”. The best thing I did was to ignore that piece of advice!
Emma: Stop saying ‘just’ and stop saying ‘sorry’ – particularly on email. I still have a way to go, as I just haven’t quite got there yet, but I am working on it, sorry.
Joanna: I generally don’t seek a huge amount of advice (or maybe I don’t remember it!) because I’ve always been one to mull things over and follow my instinct. One downfall, however, is I am often guilty of overthinking and acting slowly. My father and Pump Street co-founder, Chris, gave me a piece of advice around making more decisions, faster – the idea being that even if one or two are wrong, the increased pace is beneficial, and mistakes can always be undone. It’s certainly inspired me to be more decisive, which is beneficial.
Miriam: Always run your business in such a way that you can sleep peacefully at night.
Chenai: Don’t let yesterday take up too much of today.
Rosie: I love the quote “competition is the thief of joy”. It’s so easy to get caught up in comparing ourselves to others, and our businesses to others, and lose all the joy of who we are. As Oscar Wilde said, “be yourself, everyone else is already taken”.
Rav Gill, Chef, Author, Presenter and Founder of Countertalk
Emma Kirkby, Event Manager – Wilderness Festival, Festival Republic
Joanna Brennan, Co-founder of Pump Street Chocolate
Miriam Haniffa, Founder of PALM Hotel, Sri Lanka
Chenai Bukutu, Founder of ByChenai Events
Rosie Brown, Co-CEO of Cook
