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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
MAURICE J. TOBIN, SECRETARY
WOMEN’S BUREAU
FRIEDA S. MILLER, DIRECTOR
The Outlook
for Women
as
Food-Service Managers
and Supervisors
Bulletin of the Women’s Bureau No. 234-2
Home Economics Occupations Series
U. S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE
WASHINGTON : 1952
For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government
Printing Office, Washington 25, D. C. Price 20 cents
This bulletin is No. 234-2 in the
HOME ECONOMICS OCCUPATIONS SERIES
No. 234-1
No. 234-2
The Outlook jor Women in Dietetics
The Outlook for Women as Food-Service Managers and
Supervisors
.
LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
United States Department or Labor,
Women’s Bureau,
Washington, March ilh 1952.
Sir : I have the honor of transmitting a report on the employment
outlook for women graduates of home economics schools as foodservice managers and food-service supervisors.
This is the second in a series on home economics occupations,
planned and initiated by Marguerite W. Zapoleon, formerly head of the
Branch of Employment Opportunities for Women in the Bureau’s
Division of Research. The first bulletin dealt with the field of dietet
ics. The present report covers food service in commercial eating
places, cafeterias operated by industrial firms for their employees, and
college residence halls. This report was prepared by Agnes W.
Mitchell under the direction of Mary N. Llilton, Chief, Division of
Research.
I want to express appreciation here for the generous cooperation
rendered by the many organizations, agencies, and individuals who
contributed information and photographs for this study.
Respectfully submitted.
Frieda S. Miller, Director.
Hon. Maurice J. Tobin,
*
Secretary of Labor.
,
in
FOREWORD
The study of home economics has long been important in training
women for their work as homemakers. With the long-time trend in
our economy toward the transfer to manufacturing or service indus
tries of many of the functions formerly performed in the home,
our colleges of home economics have become of growing importance
as a source of managerial and supervisory staff for food-service
activities outside the home.
This report on women home economists in commercial, industrial,
and college food service, like the report on hospital dietitians, schoollunch managers, and nutritionists (Bull. 234-1), describes the trends
in occupations for which training in home economics at the college
level prepares women.
In the preparation of these two reports, more than 600 books, pam
phlets, and articles were read. But the principal sources of infor
mation were persons engaged in food-service management, reached
primarily through their organizations, their places of employment,
their training centers, and the Government agencies concerned with
foods programs.
In the broad field of food service, where home-economics graduates
play a role numerically insignificant, it was neither necessary nor
feasible to study the occupation as a whole in order to bring to light
the many and varied opportunities open to women with suitable edu
cational and personal qualifications. Soundings were taken at stra
tegic spots, and the findings are reported here as a guide to stu
dents in home economics, students in business management special
izing in foods, and others interested in the possibilities for a career
in the food-service field.
Previous reports by the Women’s Bureau on employment oppor
tunities for women have dealt with well-defined areas in which one
or more professional nonprofit associations were recognized as the
authoritative, standard-setting bodies. Two professional organiza
tions, the American Dietetic Association and the American Home
Economics Association gave valuable help in approaching the foodservice field: Officials and members of the American Dietetic Asso
ciation were generous in giving their assistance throughout the
preparation of the report, and the American Home Economics
Association cooperated with the Bureau in a questionnaire survey of
its members.
IV
FOREWORD
V
The other organization whose assistance proved most helpful is
an employer organization, the National Restaurant Association,
which through its National, State, and local membership speaks for a
substantial portion of the restaurant managers and executives in the
country.
Authorities connected with If colleges and universities were also
consulted, as well as a number of hotel managers, concessionaires, and
industrial employers operating employee cafeterias.
Sources for the series include:
Twenty other organizations, such as the School Food Service
Association, the College and University Food Service Insti
tute, the International Stewards’ and Caterers’ Association,
the Industrial Cafeteria Executive Association, the Food and
Nutrition Section of the American Public Health Association,
and the American Hospital Association.
Twenty-four training centers, including internship and ap
prenticeship courses and foods and institution-management
programs.
Twenty-eight hospitals, especially in the preparation of the
bulletin on dietetics.
Thirty Government agencies, including 2 international organiza
tions, 4 State health departments, and 24 Federal agencies. In
preparing the present report, special help, including access to
unpublished materials, was received from the Department of
Agriculture, the Federal Security Agency, and the Bureau of
the Census in the Department of Commerce.
To these contributors the Bureau is indebted for the raw material
which made this report possible.
The Bureau is grateful to the following for the illustrations used:
General Electric Co., Schenectady, N. Y. (figs. 2, 10).
Grace E. Smith Co., Toledo, Ohio (figs. 1, 8).
Iowa State College, Ames, Iowa (figs. 11, 12).
Stonffer Corp., Cleveland, Ohio (cover picture and figs. 7, 9).
University of Michigan Residence Halls, Ann Arbor, Mich. (figs. 4, 5, 6).
CONTENTS
Page
__ _________ ____________ _
Foreword_____
Definitions
vm
The setting______________
In commercial restaurants _________________ _________ .
__ _
In industrial food service.
___________________
... _
In college food service _ _ _______ ___ _______ _ __________
.
Outlook _ _
____________________________
_
_
__ _ _
Demand ___________________________________________________
The commercial food-service field___
______
__ .
_
The industrial food-service field__
College food service
Concessionaires_____ ...
Supply „
.
___________
._ __
Training
24
ADA internship program .
.
NRA apprenticeship program________
Other methods of training.............. ________
____
_
Graduate courses..
Vocational courses____ __ ______ _ ____
_
Scholarships and fellowships______ ________
Placement___ ___________________
learnings, working conditions, and advancement__
Earnings _________________________________
_
Working conditions _
Advancement .
.. .
Organizations__ _____ _ ____ __________ ___
____ . . . .
Suggestions to those interested in entering the field. . _____......___
Prewar and wartime distribution
46
Appendix:
Usual requirements for completion of an administrative internship
approved by the American Dietetic Association______ ____... _
Minimum requirements for students applying for admission to ap
prentice training courses offered by the National Restaurant Associa
tion
51
Bibliography
52
Illustrations:
1. Food-service employees are at their stations in a commercial
restaurant
2. Manager of industrial restaurant talks over new kitchen equip
ment with a salesman
3. The dining-room supervisor in a hotel watches as the captain of
waitresses instructs a new waitress
13
4. Assistant dietitian in a college residence hall and the waitress
18
supervisor prepare to servecoffee
5. College hall food-service manager inspects dishes. ____________
6. Food-service apprentice in college kitchen inspects food prepared
by a helper______________________
_ __ ____________
vi
iv
1
1
4
5
6
10
11
16
18
21
22
V-
26
27
28
.28
30
31
31
32
32
33
35
37
30
51
x
8
21
24
i.
CONTENTS
Illustrations—Continued
7. Food supervisors check recipes in the experimental kitchen of a
restaurant chain.------------------------- —----------------------- 8. Food-service apprentice sets up serving pans for the steam table
in a large commercial restaurant. ___
9. Food-service managers from a chain of commercial restaurants
visit a meat packing plant------------------ - - ------------------- 10. Food-service manager in an industrial restaurant interviews a foodservice employee before hiring-------11. Food-service manager checks plates in a college residence hall
kitchen
45
12. College food-service manager supervises a quantity cookery class
in institution management-- ------------ --------------- ---
VII
Pag»
27
30
34
37
30
DEFINITIONS
From the Dictionary of Occupational Titles (44)
Chef (hotel and restaurant) II. 2-26.31; cook, chief; kitchen chef.
Estimates consumption of food and orders foodstuffs, and plans
menus. Supervises and usually assists the several cooks to prepare
meats, soups, sauces, vegetables, and other foods. May decide size of
food portions. May portion orders and cut meats. Works in a small
establishment not employing a number of skilled specialists. In large
establishments, the worker’s duties are typically limited to supervis
ing cooks and buying food. When this occurs, he is classifiable as
executive chef. May be designated according to department worked
in, as grill chef II.
Executive Chef (hotel and restaurant) 2-26.01; chef; chef de cuisine;
chef, head; chef, managing; dietitian; manager, food production; man
ager, kitchen; manager, lunch.
Plans meals for large hotel or restaurant. Supervises and coordi
nates the work of chefs, cooks, and other kitchen employees, seeing
that food preparation is economical and technically correct. Requisi
tions food supplies. May be responsible for the profitable operation
of the food-preparation department. In some establishments may
supervise a steward and in others may cooperate with a steward or
maitre d’hotel IT in matters pertaining to the kitchen, pantry, and
storeroom.
Kitchen Supervisor (hotel and restaurant) 2-25.41; manager, kitchen.
Acts for restaurant manager in matters pertaining to the kitchen:
Supervises noncooking personnel, such as dishwashers and kitchen
helpers, and exercises general supervision over the various cooks.
Plans in consultation with the manager, if the latter makes up the
menu, for the utilization of food surpluses or leftovers. May buy
food and make up the menus on own initiative, pricing the food and
planning dietetically correct fable d’hote meals (dietitian, prof, and
kin.) ; apportions number of servings which must be made from any
vegetable, meat, beverage, and dessert to keep the cost of that particu
lar item within the percentage allowed for it in the cost of a given
meal. This job typically occurs in restaurants and cafeterias as op
posed to steward, which occurs typically in hotels.
VIII
DEFINITIONS
ix
Manager Assistant, Kitchen (hotel and restaurant) 2-25.42; dietitian,
junior.
Supervises the preparation of food in one or more departments of
a cafeteria or restaurant kitchen, performing duties such as checking
supplies received and cooked foods issued to serving counters against
requisitions, taking inventories of supplies, requisitioning additional
supplies, approving orders for food from serving counters and trans
mitting them to cooks, keeping time records, and calculating the price
that should be charged on menus for food items. May assist kitchen
supervisor to plan menus.
Manager, Catering (hotel and restaurant) 0-71.15; caterer; maitre d’hotel;
manager, food.
Supervises generally serving of food, making arrangements for
banquets, selling food service, and handling complaints in a large
hotel or restaurant of formal type. May be responsible for the profit
able operation of food-serving department.
Manager, Industrial Cafeteria (hotel and restaurant) 0-71.22.
Plans and directs preparation and serving of balanced meals to
employees of an industrial plant: Plans daily menus to accommodate
employees of all shifts, keeping expenses within a prescribed budget.
Maintains an adequate supply and oversees storage and issuance of
supplies. Supervises subordinates and delegates work relating to
food preparation, serving of meals, and cleaning of kitchen and dining
room. Keeps records and makes reports of expenditures. Cooperates
with industrial nurse and head physician, in providing special diets
for employees requiring individual attention. Keeps informed on
prevailing trends in nutrition and diet and obtains and distributes
pamphlets on food and health habits to employees.
Manager, Restaurant or Coffee Shop (hotel and restaurant) 0-71.23;
manager, coffee shop or restaurant; manager, dining room.
Supervises, instructs, and assigns duties to employees of restaurant
or dining room. Employs and discharges subordinates. Estimates
foodstuffs and staples needed, and requisitions or purchases them.
Makes bank deposits. Cooperates with chef II in planning menus.
Adjusts complaints concerning food or service. Keeps time and
production records.
Sous Chef (hotel and restaurant) 2-26.02; chef assistant; chef, under;
executive-chef assistant; supervising-chef assistant.
Assists executive chef in supervising the preparation and cooking
of foodstuffs. Inspects food for sizes of portions and garnishing.
May assist in cooking for banquets or other social functions.
::8ggpr-.«*
Figure 1. Food-service employees are at their stations in a commercial restaurant while the food-service manager
stands at the end of the counter.
The Outlook for Women as
u
FOOD SERVICE MANAGERS AND
SUPERVISORS
^
THE SETTING
-<
r
-
This study of quantity food service is limited to commercial and
industrial establishments and colleges. Hospital dietitians and school
lunch service managers have been treated in an earlier bulletin in
this series. Persons in charge of quantity food service have a numher of different designations, as indicated in the preceding definitions
from the Dictionary of Occupational Titles, because this is a rapidly
expanding field in which titles have not been standardized. The
most popular terms seem to be those of food-service manager and
food-service supervisor. In a 1951 survey of almost 100 Washington, D. C., home economists in commercial and industrial restaurant
work, it was found that only one was known as a dietitian. The
food-service manager’s duties differ very little from those of the
administrative dietitian in a large hospital who has charge of the
food service for the staff and the hospital employees.
In Commercial Restaurants
V
ft
r
.
i
.....
.
No reliable information is available on the number of trained food
managers and supervisors employed over the country. The 1948
Census of Business, Volume III, Retail Trade, gives some basic data
on retail stores classified as eating and drinking places: In the 194,000
eating places (restaurants, cafeterias, caterers, lunch counters, and
refreshment stands) there were 968,000 employees and 339,000 active
proprietors and unpaid family workers (-T0 • To get an idea what
proportion of food-service workers are women, it is necessary to
go back to the 1940 census. At that time there were 273,000 “pro
prietors, managers, and officials” of eating and drinking places, of
whom 66,000 or slightly less than one-fourth, were women; there were
also 673,000 cooks and waiters or waitresses not in private homes;
539,000 of these, or four-fifths, were women.
Only a small number of the managerial and supervisory group are
women with college training followed by the internship or apprentice
ship. One official in the National Restaurant Association estimated
l
-t
2
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
tluit. at least 2,000 trained food-service managers and supervisors,
nearly all of them women, were employed in the United States in
commercial and industrial feeding in 1950; and a person familiar
with colleges believed about 1,000 were working in colleges and uni
versities. An estimate of 3,000 for the country, on that basis, would
seem to be conservative.
The typical food-service manager or supervisor in larger organi
zations must coordinate a number of factors to provide the desired
service. One important phase is the preparation of menus, usually
planned for the period of a week and sometimes for 3 to 4 weeks in
advance, possibly during consultation with other members of the or
ganization. The next step is the purchasing or requisitioning of food,
supplies, and equipment in large quantities, taking into consideration
quality, price, seasonability, inventory on hand, and use of left-over
food. Order lists are prepared together with food production sheets
showing all menu items with the amounts needed. Standard recipes
and instructions must be available. Often different menus are re
quired for different groups of persons being served during one meal
period in the same organization. Provision must be made for the
delivery of the food, the checking of the food for quality and price, the
storage and issuance of food and supplies, and the upkeep of materials
and equipment.
Then the food preparation must be carefully supervised. The
actual cooking is delegated to various employees, but the food-service
supervisor assumes final responsibility for the appearance, texture,
and flavor of the finished product and may take a, hand in actual prep
aration when the need arises. However, in general, duties are con
fined to the supervision of the work procedure in the food production
units.
Following the preparation of the food, the serving is a vital part
of the food-service manager’s function. If there are counter dis
plays, as in a cafeteria, the manager must plan them, direct the ar
rangement. of food to make it attractive, and arrange for the speed
of the service. Standard portions must be determined, the necessary
serving equipment selected, and servers instructed on portion size and
plate arrangement. During the entire serving period, counters must
be checked to be certain that food is replenished and that the surround
ings are clean and attractive. At the close of the serving period, left
over food must be considered and its disposition directed.
Ihe accounting and the record keeping of the food department are
other phases of the work which call for well-organized and precise
performance. Ihe manager must standardize the recipes with the
purpose of controlling quality, yield, and cost. An adequate food-costcontrol system must be developed. Inventory records and accounts of
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
3
food costs, not only in the aggregate but for each item served, are com
puted. Food control sheets with a record of the quantity produced
and the amount left over are also important. Often the manager is
directed to operate within a specified budget or to show a certain
Profit. Sales and customer counts, food cost and labor cost percent
ages, market price lists, and weekly and monthly inventories are a
part of this job.
Since to carry on this schedule implies the functioning of a harmo
nious working force, the maintenance of good employee relationships
is also important. Each employee should be interviewed by the man
ager at the time of hiring to determine his interests and experience.
He should be taught proper methods and standards for food service
in the job best fitted to his ability. The manager usually hires and
recommends for transfer, promotion, and dismissal. Food handling,
the operation of dishwashing, the care of equipment, and the house
keeping in general in the food department call for careful supervision
and good cooperation on the part of the kitchen and dining room
personnel. Motion pictures for training food-service personnel are
available for the manager’s use (28). The manager finds time to
listen to employee problems and suggestions. One of the most exact
ing tasks in this kind of work, which calls for experience of a high
order, is the scheduling of the working period of each employee so that
no conflicts arise, the time of each worker is adequately filled without
undue haste, and none is inactive on the job.
Sometimes the work is further complicated for the manager by
having student apprentices or part-time helpers on the work force.
They must be given special attention and, in some cases, classes must
be held for their training. Other duties of the manager include the
recommendation of repairs or replacements of equipment as they be
come necessary. The manager also is expected to please the patrons
and in every possible manner promote better nutrition. Such a va
riety of duties calls for a well-trained and experienced person, able
to perform all phases of this complex but interesting work.
Probably the greatest number of food-service managers are in com
mercial food establishments. This industry was said to serve 60
million meals daily in 1949 (23). Commercial food-service managers
must have the ability to anticipate the demands of the public and to
gain and hold patronage through attractive menus and the satisfactory
service of food. They must also realize a profit for the organization
by the use of well-organized cost-control methods (JO). This results
in an anomaly in that the manager or supervisor is rated by the com
pany as a success if a profit is realized while professionally the aim
of the trained manager is good nutrition. These managers may oper
ate a restaurant, a cafeteria, or a tea room, or the food service of a club,
inn, or hotel, either as the owner or as an employee.
4
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
In Industrial Food Service
The manager or supervisor of industrial food services in a dining
room or cafeteria has charge of food service for the employees of a
business organization—such as a factory, bank, insurance company,
utility company, or other establishment. Industrial feeding has many
intangible values which make it a useful management tool. In this
work, the top management of the organization determines the finan
cial and administrative policies for the food-service manager who in
turn becomes responsible for their execution. The manager is usu
ally given authority commensurate with this responsibility and has
access to an executive in the organization whose influence can shape
policy when necessary. In some instances the industrial feeding
department is a division of the service and health department, under
the executive in charge of industrial relations. If the company has
a number of cafeterias in several plants in the same neighborhood,
the manager may supervise assistant supervisors in the several plants.
Industrial food service is a large and expanding field. It employs
thousands of workers, of whom a large proportion are women. It
has the shortest hours, generally speaking, of any branch of the
restaurant business. Top salaries for supervisors and managers com
pare favorably with those in college and hospital food service. Never
theless, few of the employee cafeterias supplying information on
this point utilized trained women managers, and many firms were
dubious as to the desirability of employing them.
The industrial food-service manager must adhere to the financial
budget as directed by the management. The policy in industrial
food service differs from that of commercial feeding with its profit
motive because food service in industry is usually considered a factor
in good industrial relations and an adjunct to efficient production.
Some companies operate their food service at a deficit and feel that
this is a worthwhile investment in good will; some donate the use of
dining space and kitchens without charging this to the expenses of
operation of the.food department; others expect the housing expenses
to be covered by the income from the food department. In at least
one large company, meals are furnished without cost to the employees.
All of these varying policies are of vital interest to the food-service
manager, who must regulate the financial control accordingly.
In factories, food service may include cafeterias, restaurants, can
teens, lunchrooms with sandwiches and packaged goods but no hot
foods, mobile canteens—sometimes with hot foods—dispensing along
established routes in the plant, boxed-lunch service, and formal dining
rooms for executives. Eefrigeration for home-packed lunches of the
employees is sometimes provided in the form of a large grocery type
of refrigerator. As a change of scene has been found to be conducive
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
5
to enjoyment and good digestion, lunchrooms may be provided, these
used perhaps for safety meetings or other gatherings at other times
during the day.
In College Food Service
In the field of college food service the worth of the trained foodservice manager seems to be recognized more, on the whole, than
in other fields, possibly because employers in this field are likely
to value professional training. However, especially in the smaller
colleges, employers are sometimes inclined to accept whatever is at
hand rather than obtain satisfactory professional personnel in this
vital service where the nutrition and health of the students are im
portant. Too often a local cook or an instructor’s widow is given
preference. Some colleges are served by concessionaires. Occa
sionally women who “have come up through the ranks” do outstand
ing work in the college field but they are few in number. College
food service may be supervised by the home economics department
of the college, by a business director or dean, or be accountable to
a combination of them. Colleges are just beginning to realize the
importance of controlled food service from considerations both of
finance and of student morale. The food-service manager in a college
is sometimes called a dietitian so that the parents may know that a
qualified person supervises the food.
The food-service manager in smaller colleges, and sometimes in
the larger ones, may have varied duties. She may be given profes
sorial rank, teaching classes in institution management or in foods
and nutrition along with her job of managing the food service. In
small college residence halls she may assume home-management duties.
Students, employed as part-time or full-time workers in the dining
halls or cafeterias in return for free meals or tuition, may be a com
plicating factor for the manager in the preparation of reports and
the maintenance of the cost accounting system. Under this arrange
ment, special training programs for these students must be provided to
fit them for the particular job which they undertake in the dining
room, and split-time schedules may be necessary to permit them to
attend their classes. The food-service manager is usually expected
to provide catering for special social occasions at the college. The
planning and scheduling of such special events is important to the
social activities of the college.
In large colleges and universities, the work may be complicated
further by the fact that master menus, served simultaneously through
out the campus in the various dining rooms, may not be acceptable.
Where thousands are served at each meal, some food-service man
agers have found that men students like different food from women
students, and married couples from single students.
6
outlook; for women
In a 1950 survey of 152 colleges, the relationship of size of foodservice department to student enrollment ranged from an average
of 4 full-time employees in the kitchens and serving areas for schools
with an enrollment of less than 100 students to an average of 120
for schools with an enrollment in excess of 5,000. Part-time student
employees working in the food-service departments of these colleges
were usually paid from 50 to 75 cents an hour when cash wages were
given. In other colleges, they received only free meals. Students’
working hours or their amount of earnings were usually limited so
that the students’ academic performance was protected (17).
OUTLOOK
Excluding places where the sale of food is secondary to the main
business, such as hotels, night clubs, cafeterias operated by industrial
plants for their employees, drug stores with fountain service, de
partment stores, and bus terminals, about 194,000 eating places were
estimated by the Census Bureau to be in existence in this country in
1948. Many thousands of additional eating places were in operation
in the excluded categories and in the college field. With gross sales
amounting to nearly Oft, billion dollars and payrolls to iy3 billion
dollars in 1948, eating places ranked among the largest retail busi
nesses in the United States {43). An instructor in charge of hotel
management courses in a large university predicted that with shorter
hours and greater volume, 500,000 additional jobs of all types are
likely in the hotel field. This will probably increase the demand
for trained food-service managers {24).
Further expansion of the commercial industry is likely, for cir
cumstances—such as the scarcity of servants, the increase in apartment
dwelling, the trend toward urban living, and the greater number of
women in industry and business—are making people increasingly
dependent on restaurants. Moreover, the restaurant business is rela
tively independent of general business conditions, as people must
always eat regardless of depression or prosperity; therefore, a con
tinuous demand exists for persons skilled in restaurant operation.
As restaurant operation emerges as a science, the home economist
trained in foods and nutrition is being recognized as a valuable part
of that development. Many successful food-production managers
today are college graduates who majored in home economics, foods
and nutrition (dietetics), or in institution management and who use
a scientific approach to the problems of food production. A woman
in this work can make practical application of the principles of
chemistry, bacteriology, nutrition, accounting, psychology, person
nel administration, and many other academic subjects. Such man
agers are usually well compensated for their services.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
7
Opportunities for trained women far exceed the supply and in
clude key positions in both large and small restaurants. For more
than 25 years trained managers have been employed in a few res
taurants, but some organizations are just beginning to hire them.
This is part of an intensive campaign begun by certain restaurant
operators in 1947 to increase efficiency in an effort to lower costs (SB).
Even one trained person can be of great value in an establishment.
The restaurant owner will find in the future that he has an in
creasingly discriminating public to satisfy as more nutrition-conscious
persons leave the schools of the Nation. ITe will need a restaurant
manager able to provide satisfactory food service, and experienced in
merchandising, salesmanship, employee relationships, and food-cost
control. In this business, as in most business organizations, human
relationships are assuming a more important place. Wise scheduling
and planning on the part of the supervisor, as well as employee
training, will do much to eliminate friction among the employees
and to keep them working steadily and with'satisfaction. Skill in
maintaining good public relations with the clientele is another chal
lenging phase of the restaurant manager’s work.
A woman who is the general manager of a large restaurant chain
states that there is a progressive future in the restaurant industry for
women who are well prepared in colleges and are trained to meet the
needs of the establishment in which they work. They must have a de
sire to progress professionally and personally. Women supervisors
need physical stamina to endure the pace of the business since they
are on their feet most of the time. They need to be accurate and have
an appreciation for detail. Experienced supervisors find the work
fascinating and satisfying.
A college degree, although not indispensable in the restaurant busi
ness, will help a woman with a flair for restaurant management to go
farther in a shorter period of time. However, there are opportunities
in food-service business for the high-school graduate and for those
with even less education if they acquire the proper skills and tech
niques, either on the job or at vocational schools. Occasionally restau
rant people beginning in the more routine positions attain a high de
gree of success.
One executive of a large chain of restaurants in the East has been hiring
women with a European background who are food craftsmen rather than pro
fessional workers. They lack college training but are expert in food preparation
and surpass most American food-service managers in cooking-skills. However,
this director was eager to hire a number of trained food-service supervisors and
was willing to take graduates from home economics schools and train them in
his restaurants. This chain had 45 establishments and at least 33 trained women
in 1951. More were needed and would be hired when available.
994335
52----- 3
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
8
Figure 2. Manager of industrial restaurant talks over blueprint of
proposed new kitchen equipment with a salesman.
Another operator of a chain of restaurants with a large number of trained
women on her staff stated that the exceptional woman may be able to do a
satisfactory job in restaurant operation without college training if her interest
in- foods is active and her experience well-rounded. She had several in her
employ who had no specialized training but they had been capable pantry super
visors for a period of years. However, they were not considered in the regular
progression line for promotion.
As long as restaurant eating is essential to our economy, the home
economist will find opportunities in the commercial restaurant indus
try. A clientele will always he waiting wherever good food is served in
clean, pleasant surroundings. The home economist with good train
ing, enthusiasm, vision, and the capacity for sustained effort usually
finds satisfaction in this work {23).
The outlook for women in industrial, or employee, food service is
generally conceded to be good by persons in this field. Although in
dustrial restaurants decreased somewhat in number in 1948 and 1949,
they were on the increase by 1951 as a result of the defense emergency
situation {32). One food director believed that bette'r opportunities
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
9
exist in the food services for employees in banks, financial institutions,
and insurance companies than in manufacturing industries. Some
trained women are already in this type of work; during Wor] d War II
they became more numerous as a result of general expansion of in
dustrial feeding. But the field is large and, on the whole, almost
untried as far as women are concerned. The problem in the future is
for trained women to sell their profession to industrialists, because
they do not enjoy the same professional prestige in the industrial field
that they have in the hospital field.
Though in industrial food service the necessity to gain profit
is often less marked than in commercial restaurants, because many
employers are willing to operate their food services at cost or at a
loss, as a service to their workers, the food-service manager, as a
result of her training, brings to the service an insight into business
like methods of avoiding waste. Generally, the aim in the industrial
field is to provide as much good food as possible to the worker at the
lowest cost.
The trained industrial food-service manager often faces a distinct
challenge to improve the dietary habits of the workers and their
families in the place in which she is employed. Today, when par
ticular stress is being placed upon selection of food, the community
responsibilities of the food-service manager are being more fully em
phasized. She should keep in close touch with community programs
of health and welfare agencies because of the relationship of the
worker’s food consumption on the job to family eating habits.
College food service differs from commercial and industrial food
service in that more emphasis is given to nutritional balance than in
other types of restaurants. Also the prices charged the consumer
cannot be adjusted quickly in a college if food costs rise, as prices are
usually fixed at the beginning of each school semester or quarter.
The objective in this service usually is to realize oidy a small operat
ing surplus. To succeed in college work, in addition to providing
attractive meals, a food-service supervisor must have skill in cost
accounting, procurement, administration, personnel relations, and the
preparation of reports.
The experience of colleges with trained women managers in some
instances has been that they concentrate too much on the production
phase of the service and overlook cost control. As a result, men have
sometimes been placed in charge of procurement and accounting with
women carrying on the food preparation.
One university used a force half of men and half of women trained super
visors in charge of the men’s dining halls. A university in the Pacific coast area
had men trained in accountancy in charge of the administrative phases of
the work with trained women functioning in food production, and it was
reported that in a number of colleges in the East men have charge of admin
istration and women of food production.
10
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
The outlook in college food service is for an expanding demand
for some years to come. More colleges are developing dormitory and
union systems on their campuses, especially the larger universities and
colleges.
A number of women administrators are operating food services suc
cessfully. Some are waking up to the fact that they need more em
phasis on administrative training and increasing numbers of them
attend workshops and refresher courses or take postgraduate work
in business administration departments of colleges and universities.
This prepares them to cope more adequately with the problems of cost
control and other phases of administration.
Schools with home economics or institution management depart
ments state that they receive more requests for persons trained in food
service than they can fill and that the requests have greatly increased
in number since the close of the war.
With shortages of qualified workers reported in all types of foodservice management, the need has arisen to increase the number of
students preparing for a career in this field. A conference of foodservice managers attending the 1950 annual convention of the National
Restaurant Association discussed this problem and agreed that in
structors in colleges which teach home economics should join forces
with dietitians and food-service managers already engaged in this
field to inform the public of the need. In some cases instructors in
colleges and high schools need enlightenment, as they tend to speak
disparagingly of food service. Some specialists in this field believe
that training in institution management in college could be made
more adequate by the use of cooperative courses with pay during
the training period and by encouraging students to do summer or
vacation work in the food-service field to arouse their interest. Schools
of home economics could do more promotional work and send out
information about this career work. Hospital dietitians and foodservice managers could meet with home economics classes to a greater
extent and invite girls to visit hospitals and restaurants to make them
aware of the possibilities (7).
DEMAND
In the Women’s Bureau Bulletin No. 234-1 on occupational oppor
tunities for women in dietetics, the estimate of 2,000 trained women
in the commercial and industrial food-service fields and 2,000 trained
women in the college and school lunch food services in 1949 was made
after a comprehensive study of these fields. After deducting 1,000
in school lunch work, discussed more fully in the previous bulletin,
an estimate of 3,000 women employed in the three types of work
covered in this bulletin may be made.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
11
A 1951 study in New York City indicates that there are at least
500 trained women food-service managers in that city alone. Data
gathered in the commercial and industrial fields during the present
study indicate that chains and single restaurants operating in some 20
cities not including New York City employed over 550 trained women
food managers in 1951. These scattered statistics support the estimate
of 2,000 trained women in the commercial and industrial food-service
fields for the entire Nation.
Relatively few of these trained women are employed in the indus
trial food-service field. A person experienced in industrial food serv
ice estimated that 2 to 3 percent of industrial food-service operations
were managed by women in 1949 (although women formed the major
part of the total employee personnel engaged in industrial feeding).
Only about 1 percent of the companies had menus supervised or pre
pared by trained women supervisors.
For the estimate of 1,000 trained women in college food service,
also, definite information is lacking. About 450 members of .the
American Dietetic Association and 111 members of the School Lunch
Service Association were reported as employed in this field in 1949
(23) ; but in some cases the same person belonged to both organizations.
The Commercial Food-Service Field
As there are at least 194,000 commercial eating places without in
cluding the college food service, the employee food service or other
excluded categories (see p. 6), it is obvious that there are not enough
trained women food managers to supervise more than a very small
fraction of the quantity feeding in the country (Jj,3). Yet a growing
group of employers realize the value of the person who has a degree
in home economics or in business administration with a major in res
taurant management. Those in placement service and employers
agree that more trained women could be placed in this work if they
were available, because of the continuing expansion of the food-service
field in all areas. Persons familiar with the food-service field believe
that the demand will be strong for some years.
According to food specialists, some of the larger restaurants and
chains make a distinction between two phases of the work in their
establishments: Business administration and food service. A man
who is a graduate in home economics or business administration may
lie placed in an administrative job in a large quantity feeding estab
lishment, with duties which include purchasing of supplies and the
accounting and cost-control phase of the work. The food-production
manager may be a woman, who is paid less than the man.
A 1950 survey in which the Women’s Bureau cooperated with the
American Home Economics Association covered nearly 7,300 home
economists who were members of the American Home Economics As
12
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
sociation, about 40 percent of the total membership. Over 450 persons,
or about 6 percent of these home economists, were employed in the
food-service field but many of them were hospital dietitians and nu
tritionists. In the field of institution management, 254 were reported;
37 were employed in commercial restaurants and 5 in hotels.
A partial survey of commercial eating places in Washington, D. C.,
conducted by the Women’s Bureau in 1951, showed that 13 restaurants
and chains had 28 trained women food managers supervising a total
of almost 1,200 food-service employees. In addition to these, 882 eat
ing places without trained managers reported approximately 9,000
food-service personnel employed. About 600 eating places were ex
cluded from the survey as unlikely to have trained personnel. These
were taverns, bakeries, candy stores, bowling alleys, soda fountains,
and similar small operations. At this time it was found that 5 hotels
in the city employed 6 trained women and 482 other food-service
workers while 49 other hotels reported nearly 2,000 workers but no
trained workers. Four boarding houses had 4 trained women with
92 food-service employees, but 96 boarding houses with about 400
workers had no trained workers. Of nearly 100 private clubs operat
ing in the city, 21 offered dining service to their patrons, but no trained
women were employed in this type of work. Thus at least 38 trained
women managers were known to be employed in commercial eating
places in that city.
There are various types of commercial food service. Possibly the
most common is the restaurant or cafeteria which serves the general
public. Cafeterias are increasing rapidly in number; the National
Restaurant Association estimated that 26,261 were in operation in 1947
(32). While the available information on the employment of trained
personnel in such eating places is very fragmentary, a number of out
standing establishments are known to employ trained food-service
managers and supervisors and some, in addition, to train them.
Restaurants and cafeterias.—A few examples follow" of restaurants
and cafeterias concerning which some information was obtained:
A chain of restaurants which has headquarters in the Washington, D. C., area,
with 45 units and 3,200 employees in 10 States, reported in 1950 that about 20
trained women food-service managers or supervisors were employed in its estab
lishments. In 1951, 13 trained women were added to the management staff in
Washington, D. O. During World War II the turn-over had been very heavy,
as many of the employees left to work in munitions plants where the earnings
were greater. Since the war, employees have seemed to find the work more
satisfactory, as the turn-over has been low, with family responsibilities causing
most of the job separations.
A chain of 16 restaurants, located in a number of large population centers
in the Midwest and Northeastern part of the country, employed CO women
trained managers on its staff in 1949. The turn-over was normal and for about
POOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
13
one-half of the staff the average length of service was almost 9 years. Marriage
was the chief reason for the loss of personnel.
A chain of 13 restaurants in the Chicago area, serving 30,000 meals daily, had
28 trained women supervising 1,000 other employees in 1950. In addition, some
who were not college graduates were engaged in supervisory work but were not
given consideration for promotion. Administrative positions in this restaurant
system were filled by men for the most part; for Instance, the buyer was a man.
Women were used in many jobs, however, and all supervisors in ttie food-prep
aration service were women. The general manager and vice president of the
restaurants was a woman who had begun as a food-service apprentice with the
organization, following graduation from a home economics college. The person
in charge of the menu making had also been an apprentice trainee after having
been graduated as a home economist.
However, most of the restaurants in the United States are small
{39). In fact, the United States Bureau of the Census estimated
that in 1948, 84.5 percent of ail commercial eating establishments had
gross annual sales of less than $50,000 and about 75 percent had fewer
than six employees. As home economists for the most part prefer
supervisory work, they are not likely to work in very small places
with few food-service employees where they might be expected to
engage in some' of the food production routines themselves. This
preference limits trained women to medium- and large-sized estab
lishments for the most part where competition is keener and good
performance is necessary.
Hotels.—Another type of quantity feeding establishment is the
hotel. According to the latest figures available there are about 29,000
Figure 3. The dining-room supervisor in a hotel watches as the captain
of waitresses instructs a new waitress.
14
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
hotels in the country, although not all of them provide meals. The
chef or steward is strongly entrenched in hotels, especially in the East,
but a few hotels give preference to women.
One large hotel chain with 8 units employed 88 trained women food-service
supervisors and had 8 other supervisory personnel who lacked formal training
in 1949. This chain had a training system which employed 15 food-service ap
prentices annually. They received maintenance while in training. After a
year they were prepared to become assistant supervisors on a salary basis.
The manager of this chain commented upon the change in eating habits of the
public in the past generation—a trend toward lighter entree combinations for
luncheon and a demand for food cooked in home style. lie believed that women
were more capable in planning and supervising the preparation of such food.
Some smaller hotels have women managing their food service, but
many are not trained personnel. Several colleges scattered over the
country give courses in hotel management hut reports state that few—
about 20 percent of the graduates of one school—remain in hotel or
food service. Many go into university or college work (i).
Department stores.—Food service for the public in department
stores is another type of commercial food service which uses trained
women in some instances.
A large store in Washington, D. C., employed seven trained women in 1951.
One was the food director and another was the production manager who super
vised the centralized kitchen and had charge of the supervisors of the various
tea rooms, fountain rooms, and dining rooms in the store. Another acted as
hostess, and one was a “swing” employee who moved about as she was needed.
The policy of this store was to encourage girls in nutrition courses in home eco
nomics colleges to work in the store during the summer vacation, and when they
were graduated from college to offer them the first vacancy which arose.
A large department store in Chicago employed six trained food supervisors
and three without formal training in 1949. Of the untrained women, one was a
college graduate in statistics; the second, also a college graduate, had received
her food-service training as a Wave in Navy mess halls; and the third, the
kitchen manager, had had no college training but was reported to be an excellent
person with “food sense.”
Of 10 New York department stores where inquiry was made in 1949, 1 reported
employing 3 trained women food supervisors; the other 9 employed untrained
personnel. On the whole, it was not customary to employ trained personnel
in the New York City stores, but specialists in food-preparation work believed
that the trend was toward a greater demand for them there.
Clubs, inns, tearooms, and camps.—Other types of commercial
work include clubs, inns, tearooms, and recreational camps. Only
sporadic information is available on the training of people in charge
of such services.
A recent survey of food operations in all YWCA's in New York City showed
that half of the managers were graduate home economists. The others had “come
up through the ranks” with training in special classes at Hunter, Columbia, or
New York Universities in some instances.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
15
In one country club in Texas, a trained woman food-service manager was
directing the dining room in 1947 (9).
A YWCA in one of the Eastern cities, operating three private dining rooms,
a cafeteria, and a bakery, had a trained woman, a member of the American
Dietetic Association, in charge. She had two women assistants, one trained
and one untrained.
Airlines and airports.—A type of commercial food service which
seems to have a certain glamour for the public and for food-service
employees is that of the airlines and airports. The use of trained man
agers in this field varies; some companies use trained women exclu
sively while others believe that training, other than on the job, is
unnecessary.
One company, a subsidiary of a large airline, in 1951 operated 20 airport food
services, including restaurants, flight commissaries, and employee cafeterias,
with establishments scattered from coast to coast. It provided catering service
not only for its parent company but also for most of the other airlines. This
company employed 35 trained women as food supervisors, plane packing super
visors, service kitchen supervisors, supply control supervisors, menu-planning
supervisors, and dining room supervisors. As only one-third of this number had
been employed less than 10 years ago, growth in demand for trained women was
indicated. The personnel director stated that he had several positions open,
and due to contemplated expansion, he would have additional vacancies from
time to time.
The requirements for employment as a supervisor in training in this company
included a minimum of 2 years’ experience in nonsupervisory commercial
food work in addition to a home economics education. When a person was hired,
training was given by the company for from 3 months to a year, depending
upon the experience and ability of the person. The company further required
that such employees be willing to accept assignments anywhere in the country.
In addition, the employee must be willing to work any hours, week-ends, and
holidays, since transportation seldom stops and service must be supplied.
A smaller airline service employed six trained women managers who super
vised the company’s cafeterias and assisted in planning the meals served in the
airplanes. These employees must be within the age limits of 21 to 45 and possess
good housekeeping qualifications. The director of the food service was doubt
ful if there would be any additional need for trained personnel in the near future
in his company.
Another airline company had one trained woman food supervisor in 1940.
The manager in charge of the service seemed to have little interest in hiring
trained women.
Inquiry into the operation of a large airline company in the East revealed
that it did not operate a food service. Contracts were made with local conces
sionaires for food supplies at the various airports.
One specialist in the food field believed that most women did not
care to work for airlines because of the uncertainty of flight schedules.
When flights were delayed, meals were also delayed and were served
at later hours. As the service is the responsibility of the person in
charge, extended working periods may occur at times.
994335—52----- 4
16
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
The Industrial Food-Service Field
During World War II, industry had entered the restaurant business
on an increased scale and in-plant food service had been found to fill
a definite need. In the East some manufacturers who had employed
trained food-service people during the war period did not retain them
in the postwar period; some placed their food service under the super
vision of the health, welfare, or medical division; but others believed
that retrenchment in this service would damage working relationships
in their plants. A Fortune magazine editorial in 1948 estimated that
four-fifths of all factories with 1,000 employees serve meals. Two
reasons given for this practice are the absence of adequate restaurants
near the factory and the concern of the employer for the well-being
and productivity of the employees (4-0).
A chain having over 40 employee cafeterias and 35 food bars in 1951 employed
about 2,000 hourly employees and from 200 to 250 supervisors and managers,
of whom about one-half had been trained in home economics schools. In
Washington, 34 trained women were employed in 1951 by this company. About
15 percent of the supervisory and managerial force were men, and of 45 man
agers in the group 4 were men. None of the men was a home economics grad
uate. Male employees in this organization made excellent administrative em
ployees, according to the director. However, not many men were available as
they were unwilling to take the training required of all supervisory and man
agerial staff, during which they must work among the food service employees
to learn the details of the work. During the war period, the turn-over among
all employees in this organization had been heavy, and it had been with difficulty
that service could be carried on. In this emergency period a number of persons
with very inadequate training were hired because persons with college training
were not available. Some of those who had come into the organization at that
time were rated to be as good as many others with college training; they had
excellent judgment in dealing with the food-service employees and with general
day-by-day emergencies. However, the director in charge of the food service
preferred trained personnel, as they were better prepared to decide on policy
and to fathom the cause of crises which arose from time to time in the
organization.
Another Washington, D. O., cafeteria system had 7 trained women food-service
supervisors in charge of 1,100 food-service employees, according to a report given
out in 1951.
Many problems are involved in the installation of a food-service
system in an industrial plant. Employers are naturally interested
primarily in production, with food service a secondary consideration.
However, they usually realize that production is speeded up by hav
ing better nourished workers and that labor-management relations
are improved by providing food at cost, even though from a strict
accounting standpoint the food service may be operated at a loss.
Usually, a good system of cost accounting will keep operating losses
at a minimum without raising the prices charged to employees (1).
Another difficulty is that in many plants space is too limited to ac
commodate a food-service system.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
17
In New York State in 1950, about 80 percent of the 60,000 indus
trial plants had 100 worker’s or less. Since a trained food-service
manager usually prefers to supervise the feeding process and refrain
from the actual preparation of the food herself, she is virtually lim
ited to larger plants where a staff of workers is feasible. As a re
sult, cooks are often in charge in small plants. An estimate of some
what less than 3,000 cafeterias in large or medium-sized plants, in
cluding about 100 large plants, was made in New York State. In
many instances, concessionaires operated the food service, some of
whom employed trained women.
One large packing plant operated 40 cafeterias in 1948, with cooks and chefs,
but had a trained woman manager in charge who standardized the service in
the cafeterias (31).
In a company manufacturing photographic supplies, a nutrition director was
in charge of the food service in 1952, assisted by 3 nutrition advisers and 10
dietitians. An approved internship program was in operation to instruct the
interns in practical problems and prepare them for supervisory work later
with the company.
A large manufacturer of electrical equipment and accessories also operated a
food service with an experienced director in charge. He had 4 men department
chiefs and 16 women section chiefs, of whom 10 had home-economics training.
The other 6 women had been trained on the job, beginning as counter hands
or waitresses.
In addition to manufacturing plants, many banks, insurance com
panies, and other service and utility companies have trained women
food-service supervisors in charge of their employees’ cafeterias and
dining rooms.
In 1948, a Nation-wide company in the communications field had 3 trained
women in charge of its New York City cafeterias, which fed 7,000 employees
daily (8).
One life-insurance company was known to feed its employees without charge.
It served 30,000 meals daily in 1949 and had a staff of trained women con
sisting of a manager with 7 assistant supervisors,
A telephone company in 1951 employed three trained women, members of the
American Dietetic Association, to manage its employee cafeterias on the east
coast. The director preferred to employ only experienced trained personnel as
she did not want to take the time to do any training herself. A supervisor
was placed in charge of a large cafeteria or several small cafeterias. One super
visor was in charge of training food-service personnel and one in charge of the
centralized purchasing for all of the cafeterias. These women apparently were
satisfied to work for the company, as the turn-over was low. Many em
ployees stated that they preferred industrial work to hospital work because of
the hours.
In the 1951 Washington, I). C., survey, previously mentioned, it was
found that 8 employee cafeterias and chains in the city employed 50
trained women in supervisory capacities and a total of nearly 2,600
food-service workers. One of these chains was the Government cafe
18
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
teria system which is peculiar to this Federal city. Eight other
employee cafeterias with 66 food-service workers were found to lack
trained women.
College Food Service
In the early postwar period, marked by an expansion in college
attendance, many colleges and universities which had not fed and
housed their students in the past made these provisions for their stu
dent bodies. As a result, residence halls, union halls, dining rooms,
cafeterias, and tearooms have appeared on college campuses and more
of these facilities are in the planning stage. As colleges frequently
employ trained food managers, this has developed a strong demand for
both men and women in this field. The greatest need appears to be
for food managers with ability in administration, personnel, technics,
cost accounting, and purchasing. Women food-service supervisors
Figure 4. Assistant dietitian in a college residence hall (left) and the
waitress supervisor prepare to serve coffee.
who are expert in “balancing meals” are sometimes unable to “balance
budgets,” according to one authority in this field. As colleges do not
maintain food service as a subsidy item but plan to offer good food
in satisfactory surroundings at a small operating surplus, proper cost
accounting is vital (17). For a woman who is interested in the col
lege field, the administrative phase of the work is important.
The policy of many colleges is to give to women in charge of food
service status equal to that of instructors. Often the food-service
POOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
19
manager is expected to be prepared to instruct students in courses in
quantity cookery, institution management, equipment, and related
subjects. As a result, those with the master’s degree are frequently
given preference in this field. Three college food directors are known
to have the doctor’s degree. This indicates that for this type of work,
advanced degrees are an asset.
The system in operation in one midwest college in 1950 is fairly typical of
those in many of the larger colleges, although each follows its own individual
policies. In the residence hall, 1,000 persons were served at each meal. The
trained food-service managers supervised 31 full-time food service employees
and 61 men and 97 women part-time workers. The latter were students who
worked for 3 hours each day and received room and meals in return. As less
than one-half of the student workers returned to their jobs each fall, new part
time workers were trained each year. Before the opening of the fall semester,
the new students were chosen and four dining-room hostesses were selected who
were to work 4 hours each day and receive room and board. These students
worked on two shifts so that the dining hall was always adequately staffed.
Good workers were sometimes rewarded with week-end releases.
The use of student help is a phase of the work which the manager
in college food service usually supervises. Of the 150 college and
university food-service directors attending the thirty-first annual con
vention of the National Restaurant Association in 1950, over 80 percent
had students assisting in the dining halls or cafeterias. About half
of these institutions paid the students in cash while one-third paid
with free meals or script books honored in the dining halls. One col
lege gave a $10 bonus at the close of the semester for satisfactory stu
dent service. Some colleges gave a party for the working students
and their friends at the close of the semester. Directors of college
food service state that it is considered to be a privilege to be chosen
to work in dining halls and that more consideration is given to such
working students by the college instructors than to those who do not
work. The development of these working students and the good
effect of the discipline upon them during their sojourn at school are
a source of great satisfaction to the food managers (1).
Many other problems arise in college work which distinguish it
from work in commercial restaurants. For instance, the type of food
service is usually decided by the desires of the students. In one south
ern college, a poll of the women students showed that about 90 per
cent of them preferred cafeteria meals because of the time element.
They could complete a meal in 20 minutes in the cafeteria according
to the girls but they asserted that the slower dining room waitress
service would “interfere with their social life” by taking up too much
of their time (1).
While the information on trained women in college food service
is fragmentary, reports from 16 of the larger colleges and universities
20
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
scattered over the country showed that a total of 140 trained women
and 16 untrained women were employed in these schools. Two of
the untrained women were reported to have university degrees but
not in home economics. Schools were using untrained women because
trained women were not available. Trained women were employed
in varying capacities: Three were directors of food service for their
schools and one was the assistant director, but the overwhelming ma
jority were in managerial or supervisory positions. Each of 2 mid
western universities employed 14 trained women, and in one, 6 of
the women were reported to have a master’s degree.
Reports of the personnel in the dining service of 11 other colleges
show 44 trained and 18 untrained women food-service managers and
supervisors. Enrollment, available for 6 of the 11 colleges, averaged
over 7,000, indicating large institutions.
In 7 schools, a total of 20 trained men were reported as employed
in the college food service. In at least four of the schools men were
the directors of the food service, with trained women in charge of the
food preparation; in a fifth university, men accountants carried on
the administrative work of the food service, including purchasing
and cost-control functions. In one school an experiment had been
instituted the previous year of placing a staff of six trained men and
six trained women in charge of the feeding of the men students.
This had worked out so successfully that it had been adopted as a
permanent feature of the staff.
In smaller schools, frequently a member of the faculty supervises
the food service, or some local resource or a food concessionaire is
used. One person identified for many years with college administra
tion stated that of the 1,800 colleges in the country only 80 to 100
were large enough to employ more than 1 trained woman in food serv
ice. He thought, however, that the trend was toward the use of more
trained people, in view of the rising costs of food and the need for
skilled management in this field for purposes of economy.
One southern university with an enrollment of 500 to 600 employed a trained
woman food-service manager who in turn trained other personnel. In 1949,
each of five small colleges in one section of a southern State employed at least
one trained woman food-service manager.
The magnitude of the college food-service field is shown by a 1950
survey covering 152 colleges, which have about one-sixth of the Na
tion’s college enrollment. These colleges serve meals to some 190,000
students daily. If the proportion of students fed by colleges is the
same for the total as for this sample, the college food service feeds a
million students daily. Of the colleges included in the survey, 133
reported costs for raw food totaling more than 3% million dollars
annually, and 122 reported purchasing 2V2 million dollars worth of
food service equipment during the school year 1949-50 (17).
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
21
Figure 5. College hall food-service manager inspects dishes while
dishwasher assists her.
Concessionaires
A type of food service which cuts across all areas and is found in
commercial, industrial, and college food service alike is the conces
sionaire system, which stretches over the entire country in a net-like
formation. The employment of a concessionaire by an organization
obviates the necessity for the operation of a food service by the
organization itself. The concessionaire or caterer may provide food
service in factories, shipyards, drug stores, coffee shops, airline
terminals, college halls, or any type of in-plant feeding, and new
accounts are opened wherever they are requested.
The typical large concessionaire has headquarters in a big city
and may have accounts in many States. In addition, many small
concessionaires are in business throughout the country, serving meals
in a few industrial plants or college halls in local areas. Even small
concessionaires who are skilled in food service may have a highly
profitable business. l?y purchasing in quantity they can provide
meals at lower prices than can individual cafeterias or resturants,
at the same time relieving the employer or the college of all responsi
bility in that direction. Apparently most of the managerial person
nel in these small companies are trained on the job by the catering
staff. Girls who began as waitresses or kitchen helpers may be ad
vanced over a period of years to positions of responsibility if they
show aptitude for such work.
One concessionaire, whose activities were restricted for the most part to indus
trial service, reported in 1951 that he employed six trained women as managers
and assistant managers. Three of these were recent college graduates and had
been with the company for only a few months. Two others, each with approxi
mately 15 years of experience in home economics work, were employed as
22
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
manager and head supervising dietitian. The latter was responsible for the
entire food-service program, for the training program for women, and for
promotional work for the company including informal talks and demonstra
tions, visiting with clients, and writing articles for the house organ and other
bulletins. However, the director in charge of the company followed the prac
tice of promoting promising women from his own service ranks and training
them for supervisory positions in the organization. He pointed out that the
meals served by a concessionaire were more stereotyped in nature than they
were in the usual restaurant service and that this lessened the need for trained
supervisors to some extent.
Another concessionaire in 104!) reported employing a woman with a master's
degree in nutrition as manager of the industrial food division. In addition,
lour women who had received the bachelor’s degree in home economics were
employed, three as managers in industrial restaurants and one as manager
of a cafeteria in a teachers’ college. Two younger home economists were
employed as assistant managers. However, both trained and untrained man
agers and staff members were used by this company. When a new account
was opened, consideration for placement was given to both men and women
with and without college degrees. In some of the smaller operations of the
company, managers who had “come up through the ranks” were frequently
given advancement if they were deserving. Applications were accepted from
trained food people as the director believed that trained supervisors were more
likely to be capable of assuming top jobs.
A smaller local company with headquarters in a southern city had 19 accounts
in 1949, including a YMCA and a large university. A man was in charge of
the catering service and 3 men supervisors were in charge of 17 managers.
Three of these managers were women graduates of home economics colleges
in food service and a few others were untrained women who had “learned
the hard way.” The majority of the managers, however, were men, a few with
college training in food service. The owner of this company had found that
college-trained people in some instances were too theoretical in their approach
to food production.
Another concessionaire seemed to be even less encouraging in his attitude
toward trained women. In serving industrial plants, airports, office buildings,
and all types of projects, the director of food service employed many women
managers, of whom only two were trained in home economics. The others had
been promoted from the rank and file or were employed because of previous
experience in quantity feeding.
SUPPLY
Trained food-service managers and supervisors receive their train
ing in schools of home economics by taking a general home economics
course or by specializing in foods and nutrition or institution manage
ment, The course in foods and nutrition, or dietetics as it is sometimes
called, includes some training in institution management as well as in
therapeutic diets used in the treatment of disease. This prepares
students to enter the administrative or the therapeutic phase of
hospital food service. Those who specialize in institution manage
ment alone cannot become hospital dietitians but can enter food-service
production in other institutions and organizations. However, hospital
dietitians sometimes transfer from hospitals to restaurant work.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
23
For trained women qualified to fill new jobs as food-service super
visors or to replace those wlio leave, the restaurant field depends for
the most part on graduates in home economics courses. The marriage
rate for this type of worker is high, according to those in the field.
Although marriage takes a heavy toll from the ranks of the workers,
many who marry continue with their jobs for a time, until family
responsibilities interfere. The consensus is that the problems met in
feeding a family provide a valuable background for this work. As
a result, a woman may consider food service a lifetime career, if she
so desires, because employers of trained personnel give special con
sideration to married women who have had experience in the field.
For instance, experienced women who have passed the usual hiring age
limit or who can work only part-time are often employed.
Officials of home economics colleges express concern that the number
of women majoring in home economics is declining in relation to the
increase in population. In 1951, 391 institutions granted the bache
lor’s degree in home economics to 8,534 students, nearly all of them
women (46). The proportion of these going into the fields of foods
and nutrition is not known. However, some who major in foods and
nutrition do not enter hospital internships but go directly into restau
rant work, and some already employed in hospitals transfer into the
restaurant field, increasing the total available for employment.
The number of students coming from graduate courses in this field
is also small. In 1949, 21 colleges offered courses leading toward a
master’s degree in institution management (23). In 1950-51, 21 per
sons, most of them women, were reported to have obtained the master’s
degree in institution management and 129, the majority women, in
foods and nutrition. One woman qualified for a doctorate in institu1 ion management and 19 men and women for doctorates in foods and
nutrition.1 In the restaurant administration course in the graduate
school of the University of Chicago about 30 persons were graduated
during the first 4 years of its operation from 1944-1948. A few of
the women had had experience as hospital dietitians before entering
the school. Because the number of graduates available from this
restaurant administration course is so small, they have excellent place
ment opportunities. Men have always predominated in this course
but more of the requests for workers that came to the University of
Chicago were for women than for men. One of the women graduates
of 1948 was placed in charge of the food service of a large midwestern
university. In 1951, only one woman took the course. The policy of
the university is to distribute its graduates about the country on a
geographical basis as far as possible and to encourage them to raise
the standards of the restaurant in which they are employed.
1 From “Titles of completed theses in home economics and related fields in colleges and
universities ol’ the United States, 1950-51,” published in 1951 by the Bureau of Human
Nutrition and Home Economics, Research Division, U. S. Department of Agriculture.
24
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
In college hall food service, the demand for trained women far
exceeded the supply in 1950. One college hall director stated that he
dreaded the thought of having any trained person resign as vacancies
seemingly could not be filled. According to the National Restaurant
Association well over 200 vacancies in all types of establishments
existed in 1950. A somewhat casual inquiry made at the thirty-first
annual convention of the NRA in 1950 among those in charge of college
or university food-service programs in 8 institutions revealed 25 vacan
cies. Dietitians were being sought for 20 of these positions and 5
supervisory jobs were also vacant. One production-manager position,
paying $350 per month, had been unfilled for 3 months; smother un
filled position with a good salary was that of assistant to a director of
food service (I).
Figure 6. Food-service apprentice in college kitchen (left) inspects food
prepared by a helper.
TRAINING
Although the restaurant business is growing in importance and
expanding rapidly, business failures are frequent. Restaurant opera
tion appears to be one of the more hazardous retail lines. A restaurant
may continue to operate in one specific location for a number of years
but with several reorganizations or changes of ownership during that
time, each probably entailing loss to the proprietors and creditors (20).
Recent Department of Commerce figures show that for every 100 eat
ing and drinking places in business at the beginning of 1950, 12 were
discontinued, not counting transfers of ownership, and 11 were opened
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
25
during the year. For retail business in general, the figures were only
9 and 8, respectively. During the first year of operation, many new
restaurants fail because of inexperienced or improper management.
In most fields, people expect to make preparation for work programs
before entering them, but many apparently enter the restaurant field
in the belief that training is not necessary to operate quantity feeding
successfully. Lack of training, which results in inefficiency, is said to
be an important reason for failure in the restaurant industry (14).
One way in which a woman suited by temperament for the food
business can obtain adequate training in quantity feeding is to take a
4-year course in institution management or food and nutrition (di
etetics) in a school of home economics. Required subjects in the
undergraduate college course usually include organization and man
agement; institution menu planning; quantity, experimental, and
demonstration cookery; applied accounting and cost control; institu
tion marketing; institution equipment and lay-out; personnel man
agement; sales and merchandising; public health nutrition; labor;
advertising; and business law (14). A good elemental business train
ing is essential. In addition to these basic courses, a number of other
types of undergraduate training have been suggested by persons who
are successful in this field, such as training in journalism and public
speaking, time and motion study as applied to institution management,
courses in drawing, physics, bacteriology, sanitation, chemistry, bi
ology, engineering, vegetable and fruit crops, meat products, textiles,
decoration, psychology, and other subjects leading toward a knowledge
of business management, a broader outlook in personal and commu
nity life, and a good cultural background. One college, Tuskegee,
offers a 4-year course in commercial dietetics, in which classroom ac
tivity alternates with practical experience for its students in hotels,
railroad dining cars, steamships, hospitals, schools, and camps under
supervision of a staff member of the school (30).
After completing a home economics course, the graduate who plans
to enter the food-service field usually serves some type of apprentice
ship or internship before undertaking supervisory work. This is
necessary because of the complexity of the restaurant business with its
job analysis, work schedules, and efficiency operation; because of the
beginner’s need to develop self-confidence, and to prepare for responsi
bilities as a staff executive; and because of the crowded college curricu
lum resulting in little practical training in the industry itself. An
apprenticeship or internship program is that method of training in
which a learner enters an organization for a definite period of time to
learn the business by adapting the theory of her college education to
the operation of the business.
Apprentices or interns may receive training in institutions or eat
ing places which are approved by the American Dietetic Association
26
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
or the National Restaurant Association, or they may take training else
where. A survey of over 300 food-service managers, all of whom were
home economics graduates, was made in 1949 by an applicant for the
master’s degree at Michigan State College. This survey included 38
managers in the commercial restaurant field who had received ap
prentice training. Eleven of these had taken their internships in
institutes approved by ADA; 18 served as apprentices under the NEA;
and the remainder in other types of training. Of 29 food-service
managers with apprentice training in the college residence food serv
ice, 15 had taken their internships under the ADA, 5 had served as
apprentices under NEA programs, and 9 in other programs (16).
Those with approved internships or apprenticeships are given pref
erence in some establishments.
ADA Internship Program
The majority of the 70 or more ADA internship programs were
given in hospitals in 1951, but about 10 were offered in commercial
restaurants, other business organizations, or college residence halls.
Two m id western universities and one on the Pacific coast which
had American Dietetic Association approved internship courses in
operation in their food-service programs at this time had from 4 to
20 persons in training. These courses are similar in that all are of
12 months’ duration in accordance with ADA requirements, and meals
and lodging are provided as well as professional laundry. One school
permits two weeks of vacation with pay during the year and another
school, a month of vacation. Two of the schools pay stipends of
$50 a month and the third, $20 a month. One university gives
an unusually broad type of experience because, besides the usual
training in college food service, it also operates concessions in indus
trial cafeterias and commercial restaurants where the students spend
a part of their training time. This gives them a well-rounded knowl
edge of the field. After graduation most of them go into collegehall feeding, industrial feeding, or school lunch work.
A manufacturing plant which operated 14 cafeterias for its employees had
an internship program approved by the American Dietetic Association in 1651.
In its program the students work in each department in turn. However, one
specified afternoon each week is spent in an activity such as a field trip, a
seminar, a lecture, or a conference. The student is encouraged to read scien
tific journals in the company library. Shortly after the beginning of the train
ing, the student is expected to choose a subject for a special project and is given
6 months to complete the research. The subject is determined by some special
need in the restaurant or by her own interest. Some of the formal papers sub
mitted by these students have been so outstanding that they were published
in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. A part of the training
includes a period spent in the medical department to which employees come for
advice on nutrition problems and return for periodic check-ups. Thus the student
learns to deal naturally and easily with people and to become aware of the work
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
27
er’s background both in the plant and at home. This training is given by the
company without any obligation on the part of the student to enter its employ
ment later on.
NRA Apprenticeship Program
The apprenticeship program of the National Restaurant Associ
ation was set up in a few restaurants in the spring of 1942. It has
been so successful that 13 or more restaurants in 1951 offered approved
apprenticeship programs, each lasting 8 months. During 1949-50,
34 persons, 2 of them men, completed NRA apprentice training
courses. The trainee receives a salary while serving as an apprentice.
The NRA has found that the person who takes the apprenticeship
course will go farther in the profession in a shorter period of time
than the graduate who tries to plunge into a supervisory position
Figure 7. Food supervisors check recipes in the experimental kitchen of
a restaurant chain.
without proper preparation. A student with grades above the average,
who has shown evidence of leadership in school and who possesses a
pleasing personality, good health, good appearance, poise, confidence,
pleasant voice, emotional stability, and good character is preferred
by the NRA.
A typical apprentice system, approved by the NRA, is in operation in a res
taurant chain in a midwestern city. This chain had 12 restaurants in 1049,
with 1,000 employees and 28 home economists in its employ. Each spring the
general manager of the system requests applications for its apprentice training
program directly from the educational department of the NRA. After appli
cations are evaluated and approved by NRA, a number of women are sent to
the general manager, from whom five or six are finally chosen. Two or three
men, graduates of business administration programs, may be trained at the
same time.
28
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
The course lasts at least 9 months and sometimes longer, depending upon
the progress of the apprentice. Before the war, $12 a week was paid these
apprentices, but in 1949 they were paid $30 per week, given three meals daily,
and provided with uniforms and laundry service.
During their apprenticeship jieriod, they spend a few weeks in each depart
ment of the restaurant. They gain experience in the various positions in
kitchen and dining room, including those of cashier and hostess. They are
trained in the different types of food service such as cafeteria, men’s grill,
women’s buffet, and children’s catering, as wTell as regular restaurant service,
in the various restaurants in the chain offering these services.
A similar approved training course is in operation in a chain of restaurants
in seven cities in the Northeastern and North Central areas of the country.
The apprentices are required to have a bachelor's degree in home economics
with a major in institution management. Women graduates are taken directly
from college. These generally have had some summer experience in this field.
Another approved apprentice course is given by a commercial chain of 40
cafeterias and 35 food bars located for the most part in the East. Some
2,500 workers, including over 200 trained food supervisors, were employed in
1951. Apprentices are given 1 to 2 years of training until they master the
details of the various types of work—in the maintenance department, at the
counter, in the storeroom, and in the bakeshop. By that time they may be
able to undertake supervisory work as assistant managers, but often 2 years
pass before a suitable opening occurs. In time they may progress to the posi
tion of cafeteria manager.
Other Methods of Training
Many restaurants and college residence halls all over the country
carry on their own individual types of training without the approval
of professional associations. Banks, insurance companies, and public
utility companies have in-plant feeding facilities for their employees
and provide some type of preliminary training for beginning super
visory employees in their cafeterias and restaurants.
One Midwestern State college takes about six graduates from home economics
courses and assigns each to a different food manager. They are trained in an
individual style rather than in a class, and some of their work is credited
toward the master’s degree. They are paid $150 per month and are in training
for 9 months. In view of the unusually large stipend, they are expected to
remain in the employ of the college for a reasonable length of time. Such
is the high marriage rate among the managers that it lias been possible to absorb
the apprentices at the end of their course.
In a southern university, the director of college residence halls found 3 years
of training necessary before the apprentice was prepared for a supervisory
station.
Another southern university in 1950 was training 12 apprentices half of the
time in the hospital attached to the school and the rest of the time in college
hall service so that they were prepared for commercial as well as hospital
work (1).
Graduate Courses
For those who desire to continue their education into the post
graduate field, about 20 colleges offered courses leading to the degree
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
29
of Master of Business Education in 1950. Postgraduate work in
foods and nutrition or institution management is offered by many
schools of home economics throughout the country.
Where combination positions of food-service manager and instructor
are held, an advanced degree is usually required. In 1944 the Na
tional Restaurant Association gave approximately $100,000 to the
University of Chicago for a graduate course in research and admin
istration in foods. In this course the study of business administra
tion predominates, and the student is trained to set up budgets,
apportion the proper percentages to food, labor, and other factors,
arrive at fair selling prices, interpret market trends, negotiate con
tracts, establish financial credits with banks, conform with Govern
ment regulations, and learn all other phases of the complicated occu
pation of restaurant management and administration (21).
Other schools also have foods courses leading toward a degree in
business management or in allied fields, among them the following:
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.
Michigan State College, Lansing, Mich.
Pennsylvania State College, State College, Pa.
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio.
Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College, Stillwater, Oltla.
State College of Washington, Pullman, Wash.
University of Denver, Denver, Colo.
University of Illinois, Urbana, 111.
Cornell University established a course in hotel administration
in 1922 and recently opened a School of Hotel Administration in its
College of Home Economics. A 4-story building on the campus con
tains a “practice inn” with 36 guest rooms as part of the facilities used
in training (19). Michigan State College, late in 1951, opened its
Hotel and Restaurant Management Unit, called Kellogg Center, with
a “practice inn” also. The Kellogg Foundation donated $2,000,000
to the college for this purpose. A report from Florida State Uni
versity in 1951 indicated that 10 percent of the students enrolled in
hotel administration courses were women. More men are going into
graduate work in this field, many of them under the GI bill of rights,
and they are favored for top administrative positions in the restau
rant business.
In the 1950 survey of the members of the American Home Eco
nomics Association, 91 of the 254 home economists employed in the
field of institution management, or over one-third, had received the
master’s degree and 4 others, the doctor’s degree.
The Washington, D. C., survey in 1951 revealed that 88 graduate
home economists were working as managers or supervisors in com
mercial restaurants, hotels, employee cafeterias, and boarding houses.
30
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
Of these, 12 women reported having a master’s degree: 10 were in
food and nutrition or institution management, 1 in the field of busi
ness, and 1 in social welfare.
Vocational Courses
For those who desire to enter the food-service field without college
training but are willing to make some preparation for the work,
vocational or technical schools give 1 or 2 years of training in res
taurant work which prepares high-school graduates for work in
small institutions where the duties are less exacting than in the larger
mm
Figure 8. Food-service apprentice sets up serving pans for the steam
table in a large commercial restaurant.
quantity feeding programs. One school with about 200 girls in the
student body gives 2 years of training in food service. The program
includes 15 hours a week in classroom work and 15 hours in labora
tories. The students serve 100 persons daily in the school cafeteria.
They learn to be counter girls and waitresses and do all the other
types of restaurant work. Later, after completion of the course, they
are qualified for employment as kitchen manager or general manager
in a small restaurant, institution, or club (47) ■ New York State
offers such vocational training to State residents without charge.
Some hotel training schools give short-unit courses during the sum
mer in personnel methods, stewardship, menu planning, hotel ac
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
31
counting, and other subjects. They may last 1 to 3 weeks. Also
correspondence courses are offered for hotel food managers (7).
Scholarships and Fellowships
Some scholarships are available for ambitious students with limited
resources who offer promise of outstanding attainment. The Ameri
can Dietetic Association or the National Restaurant Association will
supply information regarding scholarships. (See appendix.)
As an aid in financing postgraduate study, a partial report on
home economics schools revealed that 35 schools offered a total of
almost 100 assistantships and others offered 10 or more fellowships
in the field of foods and nutrition in 1950. These assistantships re
quire from 10 to 30 hours of service per week depending upon the
school. For instance, one school offered nine full-time associateships
and five part-time associateships leading toward a doctorate in foods
and nutrition. A number of schools in addition offer general assistantships or fellowships which can be used for home economics courses.
The regulations of the colleges differ with regard not only to hours
of service but also to duties, remission of tuition and other fees, travel
allowances, credit hours per term, length of time for completion, liv
ing accommodations, and other factors. Further information regard
ing assistantships, fellowships, and associateships can be obtained
from the American Home Economics Association, 1600 Twentieth
Street NW., Washington 9, D. C.
Placement
When training is completed, placements may be obtained through
a number of sources. Colleges make a practice of placing many of
their graduates, and directors of training courses are often asked for
recommendations of outstanding interns or apprentices. The Ameri
can Dietetic Association has a placement service and commercial em
ployment agencies sometimes know of positions. The State dietetic
associations often act as clearing houses for those seeking jobs as well
as for those seeking workers. In addition, applications to large busi
ness firms employing food managers may be made through their per
sonnel departments.
In the Washington, I). C., survey 49 home economists outside of the
hospital and school lunch fields divulged the method of obtaining
their current positions. Twelve were given “tips” by friends and
relatives; 13 used their school placement bureau; 6 found positions
through newspaper “want ads”; and 6 through private employment
agencies. The rest used various channels, including the American
Dietetic Association and the National Restaurant Association.
32
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
EARNINGS, WORKING CONDITIONS, AND
ADVANCEMENT
Earnings
Great variation in salaries for trained food-service managers in all
types of work is apparent, and possibilities for advancement are ex
cellent. An official of the National Restaurant Association stated in
1949 that salaries for food managers in hotels, restaurants, department
stores, and airlines ranged from $2,250 to $10,000 per year (23). The
same official estimated that salaries for women food-production man
agers in the commercial field ranged from $3,000 to $9,000 a year in
1951 and that those for general managers were somewhat higher.
Of the 204 food-service managers with apprentice training surveyed
in 1949, the average salary for all types of work, including hospitals
and school lunch work, was $3,100. The study included 38 foodservice managers in commercial establishments, with an average sal
ary of $3,375, and 29 in college halls, who averaged $3,248. These
figures include the estimated cost of any board or meals provided.
In this group, all received some daily meals and 73 percent received
living quarters. In computing the salaries, arbitrary cash amounts
were added, based on an estimate of $14 per month for one daily meal
and $20 per month for room rent (16). These amounts, obtained from
a 1946-47 report of the American Dietetic Association, seem quite low
when one considers present-day prices. The food manager in one
commercial restaurant stated that the savings on free meals, uniforms
provided and laundered at the company’s expense, free insurance, and
hospitalization added approximately $17 a week to the actual base
salary.
Earnings in industrial food service are similar to those in com
mercial work, but in some plants the policy is followed of placing a
man executive in charge of the food service and hiring a woman
supervisor as his assistant. In this way top jobs are often denied to
women.
Cash yearly earnings for food-service managers in Washington,
D. C., in 1951 in commercial and employee restaurants ranged from
$2,262 for beginners to more than $7,000. The average of salaries for
the entire group was $3,897. One company operating a number of
employee restaurants reported salary ranges with a possible maximum
of $12,000. In addition to the money payment, nearly all had the
privilege of eating two meals a day without cost. Of those reporting
on uniforms and laundry, about one-half had uniforms provided free
of cost and the same proportion had the privilege of professional
laundry paid for by the company. Where the employee paid for her
own uniform, especially if nylon uniforms were purchased, she often
preferred to do her own laundry even though the company provided
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
33
it without charge. In a few establishments in this city, the foodservice supervisor was requested not to wear a uniform. Besides these
supplements to cash salaries, other forms of compensation were re
ported, such as paid vacations, hospitalization, sick and retirement
benefits, insurance and death benefits, bonus plans, and discounts on
purchases.
College and university wage levels are on the whole below those
of the industrial and commercial fields, as are salaries in general for
those in educational services. Beginners are usually paid from $150
to $200 per month plus meals. In some parts of the country $200 and
meals is the beginning rate, according to the National Restaurant
Association (1). According to one source, salaries for experienced
supervisors ranged from $4,000 to $7,500 annually in 1949 (23). Oc
casionally salaries range from $12,000 to $15,000 per year. A Nation
wide survey of 273 colleges and universities, made several years ago,
indicated that the salaries of dietitians in these institutions had risen
with the cost of living from 1945 to 1947. The average increase was
22 percent. The average salaries were lowest in the northwestern and
the southeastern parts of the country—$2,136 and $2,244, respectively,
compared with $2,412 for the country as a whole. The averages in
New England, the mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and Pacific areas slightly
exceeded the national average. The highest average wages were paid
in the Rocky Mountain region ($2,700). In this survey, wages in
cluded meals and maintenance when they were provided (27).
In another survey, taken in 1948 and covering 222 colleges, salaries
for food supervisors ranged from $1,040 to $2,600 in colleges enrolling
fewer than 100 students, and up to $5,460 in those enrolling over
5,000 (18).
Reports in 1950 from eight of the larger colleges and universities
in the East, Midwest, and Pacific areas indicated a wide range of
salaries for beginning trained food-service supervisors. The lowest
range, $130 to $150 per month, was paid in an eastern college but, in
addition to the cash salary, room, board, and professional laundry
were provided. The highest earnings, $200 to $300, were also paid
in an eastern university, but only two meals per day and professional
laundry were provided. Between these extremes, various salary
ranges were found and for seven of the eight schools only meals and
professional laundry were furnished in addition to the cash salary.
It would seem that adequate salaries are paid in the larger colleges
and universities.
Working Conditions
The length of workweek differs greatly among food managers.
The 1949 survey of food-service managers showed average (median)
34
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
scheduled weekly hours of employment to be a little over 48 in collegehall work and 44 in commercial restaurants (16). In a survey of 150
colleges in 1949-50, the 6- or the 6%-day week and the 48-hour week
were the most prevalent. Variations existed from a 5-day week and
35 hours per week to a 7-day week and a maximum of 60 to 70 weekly
hours in a few instances (17).
Figure 9- Food-service managers from a chain of commercial restaurants
visit a meat packing plant during "refresher” session.
On the other hand, at a meeting of some 150 college and university
food-service directors in 1950, most of those present reported that
their usual workweek was 40 hours; 10 percent reported a 44-hour
week, and another 10 percent a 48-hour week; only 3 percent had a
workweek over 48 hours. Many women prefer to work in employee
restaurants serving office workers at the noon hour, or in school-lunch
work, because of the customary 40-hour week.
Of 308 food-service managers in all types of establishments sur
veyed in 1949, about two-fifths worked in a split shift, at least on
some days of the week (16). Split shifts (that is, with a rest period
of more than 1 hour within the shift) seem to be disappearing in the
larger universities, where the use of relief supervisors makes pos
sible shorter hours even though work must go on 7 days a week.
Some women prefer the cultural atmosphere of the college campus
even though higher salaries and shorter hours are possible elsewhere.
Paid vacations appear to be usual for food-service managers. In
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
35
the study referred to above, 96 percent of the 308 food managers had
paid vacations averaging about 22 days a year. Paid sick leave of
15 days a year was provided for 84 percent, and varying proportions
also received professional laundry, health and accident insurance,
general medical care, retirement systems, life insurance, and uniforms
{16).
In 1950, one midwestern university reported that it gave 2 weeks with pay
to its food-service supervisors during the first 2 years of their employment and
3 weeks after that. One university in the East reported 3 weeks of vacation
with pay and one in the Midwest a month of vacation with pay. Many of the
larger schools have group insurance and retirement benefits for the food-service
supervisors.
Advancement
After graduation from college and a period of internship or ap
prenticeship training, a woman is qualified to become an assistant
food-service supervisor. In these days of shortages, many are hired
as assistant food-service supervisors immediately after graduation
without an apprenticeship. After a few years of experience they may
become supervisors in charge of a definite section of a large-scale
feeding operation. The high marriage rate among these workers
makes possible rapid advancement for those who continue in the pro
fession. After 2 or 3 years more, they may progress to the position
of manager in a large restaurant, with complete responsibility for a
departmental division where the essential qualities of executive
leadership and the faculty of gaining cooperation are necessary. The
manager is expected to be a capable administrator who uses a scientific
approach to the problem of food production by applying her knowl
edge of chemistry, bacteriology, nutrition, menu planning, pur
chasing, accounting, psychology, personnel administration, and other
subjects (lif).
Besides the position of food-production manager, many supple
mentary and related jobs are possible. The trained worker may be
come a field supervisor for a chain of cafeterias or restaurants or for
an industrial cafeteria concessionaire or catering company. She may
become a manager of a chain of bakeries or of an independent food
enterprise or food shop. She may advance to the position of educa
tional training director or teacher, work as a supervisor of demon
strators for a food manufacturer or utility company, or promote the
sale of food products. She may enter the service of a State or county
as an extension worker in foods or become a research worker in a
food manufacturing plant. Radio broadcasting or television in foods
or food editor for a magazine or newspaper are other possibilities.
In addition, highly paid positions await the woman who has special
training beyond her 4 years in college. Many establishments are
looking for women with food skills plus training in personnel rela
36
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
tions because the hiring and the training of food-service employees
are more and more being recognized as important parts of food-service
administration. One director of food service in a State college had
been seeking a woman to direct the work of the quantity experimental
kitchen for more than a year in 1951. In addition, this director inter
viewed 65 persons before a food buyer for the organization was found.
As no qualified woman was among the applicants, a man finally was
hired. This indicates that opportunities exist for the person who is
an expert in food purchasing. This is a good field for a woman with
discriminating food sense, but it requires a knowledge of crop con
ditions, market trends, Government directives relating to food, trans
portation facilities and costs, and proper storage conditions.
Women without formal training, who begin by actual service in
quantity feeding operations, need at least 4 years of experience, ac
cording to one authority in this type of work, before they are ready
for the first step as assistant supervisor. Supervisors without college
training are at a disadvantage when promotions are in order, in her
opinion, as the trained food-service employee is likely to be given more
consideration. Many untrained persons are excellent in maintaining
good employee relations and as such are considered very valuable by
their employers.
According to specialists in this field, the supply of trained foodservice workers is very short and opportunities for advancement are
good for women with desirable qualifications and training.
A Chicago department store which had an apprentice system trained eight
apprentices in 1948. These girls had no difficulty in obtaining work as assistant
food-service supervisors. One, after some experience as an assistant manager,
became a partner in a tea room in Texas; one went with a telephone company in
Cleveland to supervise the food service for the employees; one became an as
sistant manager in a hotel coffee shop in Minneapolis; and one remained in the
store in which she had received her apprenticeship training and was employed
as kitchen supervisor. A representative of this store made a tour of the colleges
near Chicago to determine the number of women graduates in institution man
agement. Few were specializing in this type of work and some of those planned
to enter other fields rather than restaurant work.
It is evident that excellent openings will be available in the next few
years because of the shortage. Steady advancement can be antici
pated for those who give satisfaction.
The problem of turn-over is a real one with employers of foodservice personnel. As soon as a woman lias had some experience and
proved her worth, good openings offering higher wages frequently
come her way. Many of the younger women marry and leave the field.
Some directors hire trained male food-service managers in the hope of
reducing turn-over.
One director of college dormitories stated that he had lost three women from his
food-service staff in 1 month.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
37
A man in charge of food service in a large midwest electrical company reported
that trained food-service workers remained but a few years at most in his employ.
He mentioned that one woman had come to his company from Boston but had
left after a year to become food manager in a department store in Washington,
D. C. One woman, trained in a restaurant chain, went to a concessionaire for 5
months, then to an airport in North Carolina, and finally, while still in her early
twenties, to a large New York City department store as a manager of one of their
dining rooms. Another apprentice in the same restaurant chain came to Chicago
from Utah to obtain her training and then returned to Utah as a teacher.
Figure 10. Food-service manager in an industrial restaurant interviews
a food-service employee before hiring.
The Washington, I). C., survey indicated that the majority of 84
home economists reporting had been working in their positions for a
relatively short time. Over one-fourth had been less than 1 year with
their company, one-fifth had from 1 to 2 years of service, another fifth
from 3 to 4 years, and only one-fourth had a record of from 5 to 15
years in the same position. Two workers had been employed 15 years
or more, and several did not report.
ORGANIZATIONS
The National Restaurant Association, organized in 1918, is Nation
wide in scope, with about 25,000 member restaurants in 1951 and
150,000 individual members in its 150 State and local branches. Be
sides commercial restaurants, about 30 college dining halls, 100 indus
trial feeding operations, and 150 hotel dining rooms were among the
member organizations. The association holds an annual convention
and exhibition, publishes a news letter and a monthly publication, the
National Restaurant Association Bulletin. In addition, it offers edu
cational and research services to its members and aids in placement.
38
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
Another organization is the International Stewards’ and Caterers’
Association, Inc., founded in 1901 and having 31 chapters in the con
tinental United States with 3,300 active members and 1,300 associate
members. About one-half of the chapters include women members,
and in some of these the proportion of women is as high as 50 percent.
One year of service as a steward, dietitian, or manager in an eating
establishment is a requisite for active membership, and activity in
related lines of industry is required for associate members. The offi
cial journal is the International Steward, published monthly.
Other food-service managers belong to the Industrial Cafeteria
Executive Association, organized in 1947. It had 41 members in 1949,
of whom 33 wTere women. The qualification for membership is active
employment as a food-service supervisor in an industrial plant. This
is too small a group to be representative of the food-service field.
A number of food-service managers belong to the American Home
Economics Association. The report of the Home Economics in Busi
ness department of the association in its directory of 1952 indicated
that 126 members were in the restaurant business.
The American Dietetic Association also has food-service managers
among its 9,000 members. In 1951 it reported 314 members employed
in commercial and industrial cafeterias, restaurants, hotels, and clubs,
amounting to 3% percent of the total membership. About 450 mem
bers, or almost 5 percent of the membership, were reported to be en
gaged in college feeding operations.
The School Food Service Association, with 900 members in 1949,
was mainly an organization for school lunch managers but 111 of the
members were college food-service personnel [23).
Of about 100 home economists covered in the 1951 Washington, D. C.,
survey less than half belonged to professional organizations. Sixteen
were members of the American Home Economics Association, 12 of the
American Dietetic Association, and 10 of the National Restaurant
Association. Two belonged to hotel or caterers’ associations, three
were members of the Home Economics in Business group of the Ameri
can Home Economics Association. Several had memberships in more
than one of these organizations. Two belonged to trade unions in
the restaurant field.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
39
SUGGESTIONS TO THOSE INTERESTED IN ENTERING
THE FIELD
For success in ilie food-service field, a good educational preparation
is the surest guarantee, provided desirable personality traits are also
present. Without adequate educational preparation a woman is
handicapped and does not advance so rapidly. The most desirable
preparation includes graduation from a home economics school with
a major in institution management or foods and nutrition and an in
ternship or apprenticeship, such as those approved by the American
Dietetic Association or the National Restaurant Association.
Various recommendations come from sucessful managers and super
visors regarding the most desirable curriculum for undergraduates
preparing to enter food-service work. The consensus apparently is
that a general home economics course gives less adequate preparation
for this type of work than a major in foods and nutrition, dietetics, or
institution management.
The Washington, D. C., survey indicated that 24 of the 84 home
economists interviewed had majored in institution management, 17
in foods and nutrition, and 19 in general home economics. Many of
the latter group wished that they had specialized instead of taking
the general course. Of 13 majoring in home economics education,
the majority had become training specialists in restaurant chains and
larger restaurants and were not directly concerned with food service.
Eleven others had majored in dietetics and in some instances had
entered hospital internships and engaged in hospital work before
transferring into restaurant work. Some of these District of Colum
bia managers believed that training in dietetics was a waste of time for
food-service managers, while others thought it very valuable. How
ever, in case a manager has the. opportunity to do administrative work
in a hospital, undergraduate dietetic training is an asset and, as a few
restaurants specialize in food for diabetic and cardiac patients,
training in therapeutic diets might be valuable at some point in a
trained manager’s career.
As to elective subjects after a student has decided upon her major,
three types were recommended repeatedly: Actual experience in res
taurants during the years in college, courses in personnel management,
and business training. The more experience in food service the stu
dent can obtain while engaged in undergraduate work, the better
prepared she is to work in a restaurant after graduation. Courses on
employee relations, psychology, and trade unions prepare for super
vision of food-service workers. Also, the administrative phase of
restaurant work demands proficiency in record keeping, accounting,
40
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
and business principles in general. Ability to operate a typewriter
and a calculating machine and to use shorthand is also useful. Spo
radic suggestions included courses in advertising, public speaking, and
journalism—the last two useful in radio broadcasting and television
work.
From many sources comes the suggestion that a potential foodservice manager would benefit from try-outs in the industry in de
ciding which type of work is most suitable. For a girl who is likely
to be interested in hotel work, for instance, experience as a pantry
girl gives an understanding of the work. Necessary requirements
are the ability to follow recipes with judgment and accuracy; ability
to plan the work; a good memory for details; clever hands; and the
ability to judge food by taste, smell, texture, or appearance.- Other
kitchen jobs, such as pastry cook or sandwich maker, may serve as
stepping stones.
A number of trained women have stressed the value of work in
hotels, recreational camps, hospitals, or restaurants. This can be
done during vacations from high school or college and especially dur
ing the summer between the junior and senior college years, if the
student has neglected to do it earlier. This helps to give meaning
to her college work and offers her an insight into the problems of
food-service departments, as well as helping her to decide which of
the many types of restaurant work she prefers. Too much emphasis
on theory to the exclusion of practical experience can be a pitfall
in this type of work.
Part-time work in the summer is given scholastic credit in some
colleges, upon a statement from the manager of the quality of the
work; extra credit may be given in some schools for good workman
ship (7). Even permanent■ employees, with a long summer vaca
tion such as school lunch or college hall managers have, may benefit
from some temporary type of summer work to enlarge their knowl
edge and add to their experience.
Girls entering the restaurant or cafeteria field should be aware of
the many possibilities of various types of work in the food-service
field. For this reason, a girl should decide on her specialty as early
as possible in her school life so that she can adapt her high school
and college courses accordingly. Also, she would be wise not to neg
lect any part of the field in her preparation, because she may want
to move into another phase of the work later on in her career and
she should not lack qualifications to do so. She will find that the
best paid and the most interesting jobs are on the administrative
level. If she is to be a success in supervising, she will need to be
familiar with all types of work which she is called upon to supervise,
and therefore, again, she needs preparation in all phases of the work
while in school.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
41
Upon completion of undergraduate work, some type of internship
or apprenticeship is necessary before a beginner is ready to supervise
a group of food-service employees successfully. While many restau
rants train beginners by having them observe other employees on the
job or have some kind of unapproved apprenticeship classes, women
in this type of work agree that courses accredited by the professional
associations are the most valuable.
In a survey of over 300 food-service managers made in 1949, the
overwhelming majority reported that they believed approved ap
prenticeships or internships were desirable. A comparison of salaries
and working conditions for those with and without approved appren
ticeship training indicated that a number of advantages were enjoyed
by the group with approved training in the form of higher salaries,
longer paid vacations and sick leave, a shorter workweek, and better
professional recognition and advancement. Although the advantage
was slight on each factor, the cumulative effect was impressive. Ap
proved apprenticeships were recommended by those covered in the
survey who lacked this training as well as those who had the advan
tage of this preparation {16).
Many employers give preference and pay higher salaries to super
visors who have completed approved apprenticeships or internships.
In the Washington, D. C., survey, 26 percent of the managers and
supervisors had taken approved apprentice programs. In most places,
the intern or apprentice is not obligated to remain in the employ of
the restaurant in which she takes her training but is free to go else
where upon completion of her course if she desires. The American
Dietetic Association maintains placement services for interns who
have completed approved courses and makes an effort to find satis
factory positions for them.
The procedure for obtaining a permanent position after schooling
is completed varies greatly. According to the findings of the Wash
ington, D. C., survey, the two most frequent means of getting work
are through suggestions of friends or relatives or through the place
ment bureau of the home economics school where the worker gradu
ated. A small proportion obtained jobs through commercial employ
ment agencies or “want ads” and a few through the American Dietetic
Association or the National Kestaurant Association placement bureaus.
When seeking a position, the applicant should inquire about the
details and possibilities of the prospective job. By doing this she
will not be in the unenviable position of “not knowing what she was
getting into,” as some managers and supervisors have confessed was
their experience on their first job.
After 5 years of preparation for the work—in college and in an
apprentice training course—a potential manager may need to spend
42
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
another year or two learning the business. As one food director
remarked, a college degree is merely an entrance credential into the
restaurant field. By starting at the bottom and doing all types of
work, one learns to be an understanding supervisor. A lower-paid
position at the beginning of one’s career may pay off well in the future.
If a beginner prepares conscientiously for a year or two or more after
graduation, she will then be ready to step into any one of the better
paying jobs and, if she has ability, she can advance rapidly toward
the top of her profession.
For a trained woman in certain areas of food service, the possession
of a master’s or doctor’s degree is an asset and may be necessary if
she is to advance further in her chosen field. In college-hall food
service, an advanced degree is held by many in the higher administra
tive positions, especially when they work part-time as instructors.
College faculties often prefer that the manager of food service have
an education on a par with that required of instructors in the insti
tution. However, managers mostly agree that a beginner in the field
should have some experience before obtaining a graduate degree.
One successful manager in college-hall feeding advised that, for
best results in the profession, graduate work should stress training
in business administration or commerce and finance because of their
usefulness in administrative work.
The successful administrative food-service manager should have
a pleasing appearance, an ease of manner tempered with cordiality
and graciousness, and be approachable yet dignified. She needs
integrity, sound common sense, resourcefulness, and to be tactful
and forthright in giving or accepting constructive criticism (3).
She needs professional ethics and a genuine sense of loyalty and pride
in the standards of her organization. She should be ready to assume
responsibility and to carry the job through, but she must remain
a human and understanding supervisor.
In supervising food service one should avoid falling into a rut. As
science is working to improve this field, the trained woman in the pro
fession needs to keep informed of advances in food service and tech
nology if she is to keep up with her work. One’s training never stops
but must be pursued as long as one expects to advance, so there is fre
quent need for refresher training. A membership in a professional
association is an excellent insurance against deterioration and keeps
workers aware of new methods and concepts in their profession.
Many women who marry and become homemakers continue t heir mem
bership in a professional organization.
One quality as important as high food standards is the ability to
work with people, including both food-service employees in the kitchen
and dining room and patrons of the restaurant. In the food depart
ment, coordination, consideration, and courtesy should be stressed.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
43
Standards of performance should be established and interest stimu
lated so that turn-over costs, which are estimated to range from $30
to $300 per separated employee, are avoided as far as possible.
Since most people learn more quickly by sight than by hearing, the
supervisor may speed improvements by making charts of progress
in the food-service area. Motion pictures are available for training
purposes (28). The solicitation of comments from patrons, em
ployees, and (if a class of interns or apprentices is part of the staff)
from students, tends to improve relationships. Experienced man
agers stress the fact that theirs is a teaching job. Absenteeism and
a heavy turn-over complicate the smooth performance of the staff,
making continual teaching necessary. However, many supervisors
enjoy this training phase of the work and find compensation in the
response of the more intelligent employees who in time become skilled
in certain phases of the work.
A manager needs to be informed on union activities among res
taurant workers. Many commercial and industrial restaurant em
ployees are organized. In hotels the movement is especially strong.
The manager should be able to maintain cordial relations with union
representatives and be familiar with the sphere of action which the
union occupies in the establishment.
As to patrons, they may at times seem to be unreasonably critical
even when the food is good. The manager must make allowances and
not be too sensitive. Various devices can be used to improve public
relations. In an industrial cafeteria, service for outside functions
may be a source of income to the company as well as a means of build
ing up good will for the service. Industrial food-service managers
also may build up good will among employee-patrons by serving re
freshments at social gatherings for them after work.
One manager of a college residence hall arranges a party for the students
each Christmas which is both educational and enjoyable for the students. One
year, a Swedish party was given. Swedish food was served and a Swedish
program given by the student body. An occasion sometimes used for similar
activities is United Nations Day when international dinners are arranged.
A woman who is an outstanding success in the commercial restaurant
field advises that the successful food-service manager must have an
interest in food, mathematics, people, and hard work (35). The per
son who shrinks from meeting people or supervising subordinates
would seem to be a misfit in this work.
Work as a manager or supervisor is not a desk job, and lovers of
easy chairs should work elsewhere. Physical vigor is a requisite, as
the food supervisor is on her feet much of the time. However, people
in this field say that it is not a didl routine, and the day is never mo
notonous. They find making decisions, trying out new ideas, planjiing, and the creative work of devising new menus to be absorbingly
44
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
interesting. Occasionally they confess to having their bad days—
when equipment breaks down, employees are absent, and “everything
seems to fall apart”-—but a supervisor with emotional stability
weathers the crisis even if it means that she must take a hand in actual
food preparation herself. A sense of humor helps out in such
instances.
Each type of work has its own particular merit in the eyes of those
who make a success in a specific field. A former home economics
teacher, now in restaurant work, enjoyed having time of her own
at the end of each day. Those in commercial or industrial food service
like the prestige of their position, the independence of the job, the
new and varied types of equipment provided in many of the more
progressive types of eating places, and the low living costs when food
and other compensations are provided in addition to cash salaries.
The shortest working hours may be found in industrial cafeterias,
especially where only one or two meals are served daily. Those who
work in restaurant chains find more opportunity for advancement
and specialization than in smaller organizations. Those in collegehall work enjoy the cultural surroundings, the college functions, the
association with students and faculty, and the responsibility of pro
viding good nutrition for students. In this field, the frequent school
vacations provide breaks in the service which are particularly attrac
tive to the married woman with her own home. The provision for
frdl maintenance in some schools gives the manager w7ho prefers these
working conditions a net cash salary for her own use. Older women
who find the demanding pace in commercial restaurants too taxing
can often find smaller schools w7here the work is lighter. A few
supervisors in the Washington, I). C., survey planned to transfer to
related fields, such as research, when they had gained more experience.
On the other hand, some supervisors have visions of a “business of
their own some day,” and many have attained great success as busi
nesswomen.
An older woman, In a small school where the work is not too strenuous, told
of having operated her own business for many years and paying as much as
.$4,000 in income tax alone during successful years. However, as she was on
duty 13 or more hours a day, she was finally forced to sell out her business.
Another woman completed a course in institution management and worked
for 12 years after graduation as manager of a YWCA cafeteria before opening
her own “downtown dining room” in a midwestern city, where she offered food
as much like home-cooked meals as. possible. She reported having served over
1 million meals during 1949. Aside from the outstanding financial success of
the venture, she seemed particularly to enjoy giving satisfaction to her patrons,
many of whom had come regularly to her dining room for 20 years, and she
was greatly interested in her staff of employees, some of whom had been in her
establishment for an equal length of time.
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
45
Figure 11. Food-service manager checks plates in a college residence
hall kitchen.
If a woman likes the occupation she is willing to accept the rather
peculiar hours necessitated by serving people outside of usual workinghours. Employment in commercial restaurant work usually involves
evening work with dinner served from 5 or 6 until 8 or 9 p. m. Some
restaurants have Sunday and holiday work, irregular work, or extra
hours, but usually compensation is offered in the form of compensatory
time off or overtime pay. The 40-hour week is being adopted in
many of the larger organizations, and the split shift is being elimi
nated by the use of relief workers or student trainees in many places.
Some who have “long hours” are glad not to be traveling during the
rush traffic periods in a large city and enjoy having 2 hours or more in
the middle of the afternoon for personal use. Some, who must arrive
at work early in the morning to prepare for the breakfast shift, end
their working day by mid-afternoon.
The advantages of food-service work are many, according to those
with experience in this type of work. They point out that it is a
natural field for women and an excellent training for marriage. In
addition it is an expanding field: New positions are constantly being
created and advancement to higher positions is possible in the larger
restaurants. Married women and older women can find a place in
this work. Food administration varies less than most occupations
46
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
in its demand for workers, as eating is essential in periods of prosperity
and depression alike, although managers’ salaries may fluctuate. The
variety of jobs makes it possible for any qualified woman to find
work suited to her abilities.
Some women managers consider food service not as a mere job
but as a career, and a fascinating one. The work can be very satisfying
for anyone who likes dealing with people and working with food.
After a woman with ability has spent a few years in gaining experi
ence, during which she can count on a comfortable income, she can
advance rapidly in the profession and enjoy an excellent salary. One
supervisor in an industrial restaurant believed that her work was a
social service to her country—that by serving nutritious food to work
ers, she was helping to improve their job performance.
PREWAR AND WARTIME DISTRIBUTION
With the beginning of the European war in 1939, the supply of
chefs trained in the hostelries of Europe was curtailed, and vacancies
in this country were filled by persons with various kinds of preparation.
Even at that time, one outstanding chain of hotels had trained women
food managers in charge in its New York hotels (7), and another large
New York hotel also had a policy of using them. In addition, two air
line corporations were reported to be depending upon women to work
out plans for service in the air. Because food was prepared in con
tainers on the ground and stored in the planes for flight, many unusual
problems arose {26). A number of western and midwestern res
taurants were beginning to use home economics graduates in their
dining rooms, and one of the transcontinental railroads hired a quali
fied woman to supervise its dining car service (22).
Trained women food supervisors who had had difficulty in findingjobs during the depression years of the 1930’s, and were glad to take
any kind of food-service work, were proving their worth in this new
field and were gradually being placed in supervisory positions which
had formerly been held by men. The possibilities were indicated by
the fact that in 1940 over one-fourth of a million eating places, includ
ing drinking places with meals, employed approximately three-fourths
of a million untrained workers (4-2).
In the industrial field, lunchrooms have been in operation for at
least 50 years. During World War I the number of industrial lunch
rooms reached 5,000, but about 1,200 of these were discontinued later.
Some had been under the concession system, others wTere run entirely
by the employers, and some companies invited the cooperation of the
employees in operating their eating places. The number of industrial
lunchrooms later increased coincidentally with the expansion of in
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
47
dustry, beginning in the 1920’s (25). Few plants had more than lunch
rooms, however, to fill the need. One unusual instance at that time
was that of a large meat-packing company in the Chicago area which
as early as 1934 had a trained woman manager in charge of its dining
room and cafeteria services for employees.
At the outbreak of World War II in Europe, in 1939, a profound
change came over the industrial picture. Plants expanded their
activities and in many instances operated around the clock. The
previous practice of closing down manufacturing operations for the
noon hour was abandoned in many cases because each shift under the
new policy worked only 8 hours. Often eating periods had to be
staggered to insure continuous production. Gone was the leisurely
lunch period frequently spent at a nearby commercial restaurant.
Employers realized the need for in-plant feeding and found by hard
experience that poor production resulted from inadequate nourish
ment (5). The need for an emergency food supply if an air raid
should occur was another factor. Many of the workers came without
breakfast in the morning, driving long distances to work; some
lived in temporary quarters without cooking facilities. Packed
lunches were not possible in many instances where the woman of the
household was also a war worker. As a result, in many places, carts
of warm food, modifications of the old “chuck wagons,” were wheeled
into the plants during shifts to provide sustenance at hours when
production was likely to lag and accident rates soar. These innova
tions paid off in the form of less absenteeism, lowered accident rates,,
less work spoilage, and increased production.
However, adequate food-service programs were lacking in many
industrial companies when the United States entered World War II,
late in 1941. Even as late as 1944, a survey of 2,056 plants by the War
Food Administration (as reported in the Monthly Lobov Review, Oc
tober 1944) indicated that 5 million workers in only one-half of the
manufacturing plants engaged in war work had in-plant meals avail
able. In the larger plants 80 to 91 percent offered feeding programs
but only 28 percent of the smaller plants provided this service to their
employees. This showed the need for further expansion of food
service in industrial plants.
I be war period became an interval of trial and error in quantity
feeding in many industrial plants. Some plant executives, harassed by
the exigencies of the emergency, turned to the use of the concessionaire
system. However, it was soon evident that many of the employees
were not obtaining adequate nourishment, even when good food was
provided. A nutritionist made a survey of 1,200 trays in two large
New England manufacturing plants and found that less than half
48
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
(44 percent) of the employees had made good food selections. Few
industrial plants at this time employed trained women as food man
agers. The Committee on Nutrition of the National Research Council
investigated 33 plants and found that only two had qualified women
in charge (29). By 1943, trade journals were advocating the use of
trained women in industry {11). The American Dietetic Association,
the National Research Council, industrial physicians, and the more
progressive newspapers urged employers to hire trained women foodservice supervisors, arguing that the provision of more attractive and
nutritive meals would result in increased efficiency of the workers and
be well worth the added cost.
Some local and State organizations assisted in the movement to im
prove nutrition. For instance, in Massachusetts in 1944, 35 dietitians
from the Massachusetts Dietetic Association spent a total of over
1,000 hours in preparing a weekly menu service to aid cafeteria man
agers in industry. The Associated Industries of the State hired an
administrative dietitian to follow up this service with surveys of in
dustrial cafeterias {12). The Massachusetts State Department of
Public Health at about that time released a nutritionist to conduct a
nutrition guide course for housewives and to explain low-cost food
purchasing and the preparation of nutritive box lunches for workers.
The local welfare or health agency on request conferred with any
company that desired the evaluation of the dietary value of its box
lunches {13).
As the war drew to a close, operators of commercial and employee
restaurants felt the increasing need for graduate home economists in
their establishments. To bridge the gap between the theoretical and
the practical, the National Restaurant Association instituted a 9month course for graduates of home economics schools to prepare them
to take supervisory positions in food preparation. The trainees' re
ceived $15 to $22 per week, plus meals and laundry service. At the
completion of this training course, the women had no trouble in finding
positions with the better restaurants. Many of the schools of home
economics, especially those in the universities' of Tennessee and
Pennsylvania, were placing some of their graduates in industrial
food-service operations instead of hospital internships for their final
year of training.
.
Some industrial plants had trained women food managers in the
cafeterias in positions' of responsibility while others had them merely
as advisers {2). Some of the companies hired a man as manager and
provided him with assistants, including a trained woman to plan
menus, a chef in charge of the cooking, and a head waitress in charge
of the dining-room service (05). In addition to seeing that nutritious
food was served, the woman food supervisor was sometimes expected
to handle complaints and to prepare folders on nutrition for home
FOOD-SERVICE MANAGERS AND SUPERVISORS
49
distribution (38). A joint committee representing management,
health, and cafeteria services was established in a number of factories
to promote a plant-wide health and nutrition educational program
(15).
The experience of one large electric manufacturing company was typical.
Beginning about 1918, it had operated food facilities on a small scale, with 1
dining room and 2 lunchrooms which provided 4,000 to 5,000 meals at noon each
day. At an hour* designated for lunch, many employees went to commercial
restaurants outside the plant. With the beginning of World War II, three
shifts were installed in the plant, personnel was increased from 10,000 to 39,000,
the lunch period was shortened, and food facilities were opened in various
plants. This company, with its policy of promotion from within, was reluctant
to hire experienced food specialists from outside the plant. Finally a man foodservice manager was employed, who hired a few trained woman food-service
supervisors. He had 14 restaurants, several dairy counters, and a central com
missary in operation by the end of the war and was providing 53,000 meals per
day. This company subsidized the food service mainly to the extent of providing
building space, building upkeep, and general trucking. All “out-of-pocket” costs
were paid by the income from the various quantity feeding operations.
Reports from other industries indicated that women trained as
food-service managers were gaining acceptance as valuable employees.
For example, a large mid western rubber company employed a trained
woman after 20 years of unsatisfactory experience with untrained
personnel (36).
In this new field of industrial feeding, many impractical devices
were suggested for the hard-pressed employer. In view of wartime
labor shortages, for example, one trade journal actually advised
industrialists to use temporarily incapacitated employees as assistants
to the trained women managers and suggested that employees working
in the factory could be employed as cashiers at mealtime and paid by
a free meal (hi). Some companies provided their workers with vita
min supplements and closely followed the results by frequent surveys
(11). Another company found that frequency of meals, providing
that the daily intake of food remained constant in quantity and qual
ity, was a controlling factor in determining the rise and fall of
muscular efficiency and industrial output (85). A textile mill intro
duced what was then an innovation in the industry: It provided a
relief shift which rotated about the factory and permitted the regular
workers time off for meals.
The colleges of the country were also expanding their food-service
facilities and in fact were returning to the policy of earlier days. As
far back as the eighteenth century, the college carried the responsibility
for supplying students with their living as was the practice in the
colleges of England. During the nineteenth century, the opposite
condition prevailed in the United States whereby, as in Germany, the
50
OUTLOOK FOR WOMEN
Figure 12. College food-service manager supervises a quantity cookery
class in institution management.
student furnished his own living through fraternities or otherwise.
However, many colleges in the twentieth century had again assumed
responsibility for the students’ necessities and provided residence halls
or commons with 21-meal service per week, cafeterias or other optional
food service, and tearooms with provision for catering social events
on the campus (46). Trained women food managers were placed in
charge of these food services in many instances. One large mid
western college was reported to have had one trained food-service
manager in charge of six large dining rooms serving thousands of
students daily in 1937 (37), and another midwestern college employed
at least eight trained managers in 1942 (34).
Women engaged in this work in commercial and industrial restau
rants were usually known as food-service managers but in colleges
they were called dietitians as often as they were designated as man
agers. They had given such good performance for the most part and
made their services so indispensable during the war that they were in
increasing demand in the postwar period.
APPENDIX
Usual Requirements for Completion of an Administrative Internship
Approved by the American Dietetic Association 1
(This training may he obtained in approved administrative internships pro
viding experience in several food-service departments such as industrial units,
college residence halls, and cafeterias, school lunchrooms, and restaurants.)
Completion of a course of 10 to 12 months in an approved food-service depart
ment other than a hospital, including:
1. Quantity food production, including preparation, service, and mer
chandising.
2. Recipe standardizing and figuring cost of recipe.
3. Menu making.
4. Study of organization and management relating to all types of large-scale
feeding, such as that in educational institutions or commercial or in
dustrial organizations.
5. Food purchasing.
6. Housekeeping administration.
7. Office procedure: record keeping, cost accounting, budget making, equip
ment buying.
8. Personnel management.
Minimum Requirements for Students Applying for Admission to
Apprentice Training Courses Offered by the National Restaurant
Association.2
1. A Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university with the
following distribution of courses and semester hours: Chemistry, 10 to
15 hours; biology, including human physiology and bacteriology, 6 to 8
hours ; psychology including personnel management, 6 hours; economics,
3 to (5 hours; education with emphasis on methods of teaching, 3 to 0
hours; foods, including food selection and preparation, menu planning
and service, experimental cookery, 8 hours; nutrition and dietetics, 6
hours; institution management, including quantity cookery, organiza
tion and management, and institution accounting, 12 to 15 hours.
2. Above average grades.
3. Qualities of leadership shown during college attendance.
4. A pleasing personality, good health, good appearance, poise, confidence,
good voice, emotional stability, and good character.
5. A genuine interest in high-standard food and enthusiasm for the work.
<». A liking for people and ability to work well with different types of people.
7. Executive potentialities—ability to take responsibility and to plan and
direct work for others.
8. Ability to work well with the hands.
9. Aptitude and judgment in evaluating details and in making decisions.
10. Ability in mathematics for accuracy and understanding of cost reports.
1 The Association requires that the courses listed consist of formal classes, seminars,
and conferences. A list of approved training centers is available from the American
Dietetic Association, 62p North Michigan Ave., Chicago 11, 111.
2 8 South Michigan Ave., Chicago 3, 111.
51
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