The tweet, which now has more than 35,000 shares, said women belonged in the kitchen.
(Picture: Getty Images)Burger King's call for more female chefs backfired after the company tweeted that “Women belong in the kitchen” on International Women's Day.
The food chain’s attempt at getting the public’s attention before announcing its new inclusivity programme was met with backlash with Twitter users calling for it to delete the post.
The tweet, which now has more than 35,000 shares, said women belonged in the kitchen.
But shortly after, the food company made a thread about its new scholarship programme which has an aim to close the gender gap in the restaurant industry.
It wrote: “If they want to, of course. Yet only 20% of chefs are women. 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.
“We are proud to be launching a new scholarship programme which will help female Burger King employees pursue their culinary dreams.”
But some of its followers did not find the thread funny and one user called the move “bad PR.”
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.
— Burger King (@BurgerKingUK) March 8, 2021
“You got any idea how many people are only gonna look at the first one/see screenshots of it without the second one. lmao someone in the marketing department doesn’t understand Twitter very well,” another said.
While one man called it “brave” and questioned what would have happened if the second tweet “didn’t come through quickly.”
The company has hit back at some of its critics, saying the tweets were “to bring attention to the huge lack of female representation in the restaurant industry.”
