Burger, Pizza, And Fries — The Fast Food World Brought To You By Men

Three female executives are leaving the restaurant industry this year, showing just how fragile gains by women have been.

by Venessa Wong

BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on October 16, 2017, 6:01 pm

Women may make up half the foodservice workforce (and do twice as much cooking at home as men), but at the highest levels, the restaurant business remains a man's game. While the cashiers and servers at your local chain may be female, there's a slim chance that the person at the helm of their company is, reflecting just another corner of the corporate suite where women are a near-invisible entity.

The industry's gender imbalance got even worse this year, with several departures of female chief executives.

Julia Stewart, formerly the CEO of the company that owns IHOP and Applebee’s, resigned in February after failing to turn around declining sales. In September, the role was filled by Stephen Joyce, a hotel executive who had been on the board of the company, DineEquity.

The former CEO of Popeyes, Cheryl Bachelder, stepped down after the fried chicken chain was acquired by this year by Restaurant Brands International, the company that also owns Burger King and Tim Hortons. Popeyes is now led by Alexandre Santoro, who hails from the new parent company.

Later this year, Buffalo Wild Wings CEO Sally Smith will also step down following a battle with activist investor Marcato Capital Management, which fought to replace her and overhaul the board. No successor has been named yet. Smith has been chief executive of the company since 1996.

Of the country's 10 largest restaurants chains, only one is headed by a woman: Subway, led by CEO and President Suzanne Greco.

"We’re far enough behind that it doesn't take much — a resignation or two, a retirement — to feel a sense of losing momentum," Alexis Krivkovich, managing partner of the Silicon Valley office of McKinsey & Co., told BuzzFeed News. Gains by women in any industry "are very fragile."

"The percentage of women CEOs at Fortune 500 companies sits at 6% and has never risen above that mark since the Fortune 500 list was first published in 1955," according to a July report by the Rockefeller Foundation.