Good Food asks six women in the hospitality industry whether the issue of sexual harassment at work has improved during their careers, and what more can be done.

International Women's Day is usually marked in hospitality by highlighting the achievements of women who work in the industry. But in 2023, we figured we would do more than celebrate the female trailblazers in this traditionally male-dominated field.

Women have, for decades, contributed much to hospitality and often they're doing it while gritting their teeth, ignoring lewd jokes or comments on their appearance, and debating whether to speak up about sexual harassment or if it's too risky for their job.

Some incidents happen behind the kitchen door. Sometimes it's out in the open, in front of customers or even perpetrated by them.

Last year, according to a national survey by the Australian Human Rights Commission, 34 per cent of hospitality staff reported being sexually harassed, a figure slightly higher than the national workplace average. The survey found workers were more likely to be harassed if they were female (41 per cent versus 26 per cent of men), aged between 15 and 29, queer or non-binary. Three-quarters of harassers were men. Many of those statistics mirror the composition of hospitality's workforce.

The industry has made some progress since 2018, when the Australian Human Rights Commission found 39 per cent of employees experienced sexual harassment.

But why has the problem improved only marginally? What do women in the industry think? What tools are being used by restaurants to tackle sexual harassment? What further steps are needed?

Six women at varying stages of their career, from front and back of house, gave us a temperature check on a problem that's coming out of the shadows.

Jacqui Challinor

Executive chef, Nomad Group (NSW and VIC)

Length of career: 17 years

In my early 20s, I had a senior chef grab my vagina, turn around and say, "What are you going to do about it?" I didn't want to make a complaint because I didn't want to rock the boat, which is a sentiment that's all too common amongst women. They think they're not going to be believed. Or they don't want to cause a scene.

My head chef at the time could tell something was wrong. He told me the incident couldn't go unreported, rightfully so. To make the report to HR, I had to sit in a boardroom full of men, with no offer of a support person, recount the whole story, and then sit outside while the chef who had grabbed me recounted his story. Then I was told he denied it and that was as far as it could go.

I'd like to think that today something like that – any sexual assault in the workplace – would be actioned more seriously.

Other inappropriate behaviour in kitchens was rife. I guarantee you, so many female chefs have experienced the old apron over the head when you're on your hands and knees, accompanied by a "while you're down there…" comment. The touching has always been a thing. Back then, you had to cop it on the chin and treat it as a joke.

It's not a joke. It doesn't lighten the mood. Any instance where you make somebody feel uncomfortable is not a joke.

It's vastly different now. I can't say definitively when I noticed a shift because I guess [sexual harassment] doesn't happen as much when you're the boss. But I think it's been gradual. People are a lot more conscious of what's acceptable because of the way that society is changing. And people feel more OK to speak up.

We've got a zero-tolerance policy and a strong female presence in our kitchens. We're happy to listen to both sides but any report is an instant dismissal. In my 10 years at Nomad, that's happened three times.

You need to make the company policy clear as day from the get-go. I also think you need to lead by example. It's purely down to owners, head chefs, restaurant managers to set the culture.

Dorothy Lee

Owner, former chef, Longshore (NSW)

Length of career: 10 years

I would say most sexual harassment happens to women early in their career. You're the most vulnerable when you're building your experience. Front-of-house is a bit more wild, with a lot of visible sexual harassment. Back-of-house, where I've mostly worked, it's very subtle but it's constant.

For example, I like to put on a lot of make-up. I'll wear fake lashes or reapply blush when I'm at work. Male colleagues would say to me, "Oh, do you want to impress someone tonight?" On other occasions they would say things like, "You only like to wear short shorts, don't you?"

Whenever there was a woman doing a trial shift, her body shape was always commented on. It was disgusting, to be honest. A common experience was being asked by male colleagues to participate in rating the "hotness" of customers dining with us.

When you're in roles mid-level to more senior, you kind of learn how to deal with it. But no one really teaches junior employees how to face this situation.

I think our first response is to avoid it and just do our job as best as we can. When you're younger, you also need references to get another job.

The labour shortage has in a way improved working conditions for women because businesses realise that staff are not disposable.

You also see more powerful women wanting to address this issue. Or they're creating safe workplaces. It's really inspiring.

Running my own teams [at Hartsyard and, soon, Longshore], I now have the power to sit everyone down individually to discuss appropriate behaviour. It doesn't need to be scary. It's just a very honest conversation about being a team and not making anyone uncomfortable at work.

An actual person telling you that face to face is so much more effective than watching a training video and scrolling through pages online, which is what sexual harassment training involves at a lot of larger hospitality groups.

Caterina Borsato

Owner, Caterina's Cucina e Bar (VIC)

Length of career: 39 years

I started my career working in the dining room of a football club in the 1980s. There was lots of testosterone there. It ran riot. I got flung against a coolroom for speaking out against a chef. I was a country girl and I was strong, but it was really scary stuff and it made me sad. All those footballers were powerful. You wouldn't have spoken out against them because you wanted to be in the scene. Discussions were not had. We just had to suck it up.

What has changed is that employees today know their rights. They're more aware of what can and can't be done. They have greater expectations of owners to keep them safe within the workplace. It's made us accountable.

When we employ people, we are responsible for keeping them safe. We have to become good listeners, good doers and good protectors if we want to run a good venue.

I try to make my environment safe by talking about this issue constantly. In every staff briefing, we talk about it. I employ a lot of Europeans and they kiss everybody as a greeting. But we're living in Australia and there are plenty of people who don't want to be touched. I say to my team: "I'd rather you didn't touch customers, because it's confusing."

I've done education and individual counselling with my staff, and a formal training component is reserved for management. I've even gone as far as writing into full-time contracts that no interpersonal relationships are allowed and if they happen, staff are dismissed on the spot.

Of course, harassment still exists in the industry because my team tell me about it elsewhere. I don't want to say this just affects women. It also affects young men.

Education: that's what it's all about. Educate owners. Educate staff. And educate the general public.

In the future, our TAFEs need to make this topic part of the curriculum. Even if you're doing a cookery course, you need to include something about appropriate behaviours. It has to be in there, front and centre.

Isobel Whelan-Little

Group chef, Swillhouse (NSW)

Length of career: 14 years

I've always been quite tomboyish and happy to roll with the punches, so I probably didn't see a lot of what was going on in kitchens. But I did experience a few incidents at TAFE. One example was being in a coolroom with a guy and feeling really uncomfortable and then he made a joke about locking the door. I felt quite pressured, as a 16-year-old, to be flirtatious in return, which is not the best thing. When you're a kid, you think it's all fun and games. And it's not.

When I was older and I came out, I noticed that men put me into this category of being lad-like and willing to participate in sexual jokes at work. It took a while for me to say that's not necessarily true.

Last month, I participated in non-negotiable training on sexual harassment as part of my employee induction. I have never been offered a course like this in my career. That says a lot.

We spent three hours talking about what's appropriate and what's not, the law and HR, and all these examples from other workplaces. You do a follow-up questionnaire and you have access to a one-on-one session with the trainer, who is a specialist in this area.

Information is key. If people were more open to having these conversations and these seminars, it would be really beneficial, especially for people running kitchens. We should be doing a refresher on sexual harassment every year, the way we do with our food safety certificate.

Harassment definitely still exists out there. In some ways, we've come leaps and bounds, especially in the past five years. Love it or hate it, social media has been great for giving a voice to this conversation.

But it still exists, whether it's a passing comment or people thinking they're having a laugh but it's actually sexual harassment. I really long for the day that we don't have to have this conversation, but I don't think we're quite there yet.

Ainslie Lubbock

Service standards business manager, Pt. Leo Estate (VIC)

Length of career: 26 years

My personal journey has been fairly blessed because of some great operators I worked with early in my career. The first was Janet Jeffs of Juniperberry in Canberra. She was mindful of training and empowering women to have an interest not only in being waiters, but in the meatier parts of restaurants like wine service, which was very male-dominated at that time.

When you went on wine tours and things like that, there was a bit of a boys' club that existed, which is much less prevalent now.

Back then, women would primarily work in roles in reservations or they were hosting. They were not maitre d's, they were not on the pans or in front of the fire.

The way women floor staff feel like they need to be perceived has also changed a lot. When I was working in London in the early 2000s, you would hear that in the banking district, women waiters felt they had to be more flirtatious with their male customers.

I would say the dynamic between customers and female staff has become much more respectful as women have moved into more professional roles in the industry.

I feel you still have to push and promote women a bit more to take opportunities. The male cohort of staff will be more likely to put their hands up.

There's nothing better than having great role models around you, which I was lucky enough to have. Perhaps unconsciously I did seek out those restaurants where I felt included as a young woman. Inclusion is really important.

Zoe Birch

Owner-chef, Greasy Zoes (VIC)

Length of career: 20 years

I started cooking at 15 and things were pretty rough. It was the era of Gordon Ramsay and Kitchen Nightmares, you know?

There was a culture where women just did pastry or cold salads because of course a woman couldn't cook meat. Yet you'd arrive earlier than everyone and leave later than everyone to prove yourself.

Now things are different and it's definitely getting better. In terms of teaching people what respect is, it's happening from a really young age. They're doing it in kindergarten now.

To improve, I think we just need to talk about it. Because it wasn't spoken about 10 years ago. Every restaurant should have the conversation.

It should be in your contract that this is how we treat people. This is respect or this is inappropriate, because I actually think a lot of people, especially of a certain generation, don't understand what the difference is.

I think people of my vintage in the industry need to put ourselves forward and be there as support for younger individuals. People really need that. They need a safe person in the restaurant who they can go and talk to about these things.

Your sous chef or head chef is not necessarily going to be the safest person to talk to about sexual harassment. That risk of it being bad for your career is always in your mind.

But, overall, calling out sexual harassment would be a big step in the right direction.

If you or someone you know is affected by sexual assault or harassment, family or domestic violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.