To commemorate the International Women’s Day, we are featuring women who have made notable contributions in their respective industries. We aim to explore the tenacity of each and discover how they pushed boundaries to rise to the top.
Chef Susy Massetti
What does the 2022 International Women’s Day slogan, #BreaktheBias mean for you in your work life?
We all have to fight for women to be finally recognized as productive and to be valued equally to their male counterparts. For centuries, women’s work has either never been compensated or compensated equally as part of the general dismissive male driven social culture we all live in and we, women and mothers especially, have partially contributed to that in continuing to promote these social conventions.
What is the main challenge that you’ve faced as a woman in your industry?
Support, in general I should say as I was pretty lucky, yet one of the main reason many female chef leave their career is because society and their companions, expect them to drop everything in favor of staying home and making children.
Some countries are now allowing both parents after birth, to be the caretakers – hence giving mothers the opportunity to continue in their careers should they want to pursue it. This is equality, this is fairness.
What has been the most empowering moment in your career?
The moment I finally took the step to go solo, to grab the reins of my career from other’s hands, to “free myself” from what I was made to believe I could “only” be for a very long, long time!
A fairly recent event I must say, just a few years ago in fact, but it was as scary and as exhilarating as jumping from a mountain!
Which powerful woman do you admire the most and why?
My mother. After being widowed, In a very conservative Italian society and in the 60’s, when a woman was pretty much nothing without a man next to her, she stood up on her feet, created her own business, resisted pretty harsh times and never remarried just to appease family or society. She is why I am who I am today!
Do you have any advice for women wanting to start their own business or work their way up the ladder?
Be you! Don’t listen to anyone who wants to talk you down or knock your dreams. You have it in yourself and you owe it to yourself to become the best of you!
What main change would you like to see for young girls in the next generation?
A world where “male or female” will never enter a discourse! Sex is not a defining factor in anything as far as I am concerned and it shouldn’t be for anyone, ever!