Burger King's 'women belong in the kitchen' tweet falls flat

Burger King has come under fire for its approach to celebrating International Women's Day, saying "women belong in the kitchen".

But the fast food giant insists the message issued on Twitter was made to support women and promote female chefs.

It said the tweet was made to highlight the  "gender ratio in the restaurant industry" with a new scholarship program.

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The tweet was sent out by Burger King's UK branch.

"Women belong in the kitchen," the chain announced on its feed yesterday on March 8.

In two follow ups the messages read: "If they want to, of course. Yet only 20 per cent of chefs are women.

"We're on a mission to change the gender ratio in the restaurant industry by empowering female employees with the opportunity to pursue a culinary career.

"We are proud to be launching a new scholarship programme which will help female Burger King employees pursue their culinary dreams!"

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Not surprisingly, many social media users criticised the chain's approach saying the initial "women belong in the kitchen" post had received much more attention than the post talking about the scholarship program.

A spokesperson for the company told US breakfast program Today it had made a "mistake" in announcing the initiative that way.

"We are committed to helping women break through a male-dominated culinary culture in the world's fine dining restaurants — and sometimes that requires drawing attention to the problem we're trying to help fix," the Burger King spokesperson. Said.

"Our tweet in the U.K. today was designed to draw attention to the fact that only a small percentage of chefs and head chefs are women.

It was our mistake to not include the full explanation in our initial tweet and have adjusted our activity moving forward because we're sure that when people read the entirety of our commitment, they will share our belief in this important opportunity."