Food & Wine to Publish a List: "Most Powerful Women: The Food & Drink Innovators"

Food media has a gender bias problem, what with the shitshow that went down last year following Time's "Gods of Food" issue. Even Food & Wine's EIC Dana Cowin is forced to address the issue every time the Best New Chefs list comes out. And Food & Wine, which is now owned by Time Inc., is going to make up for the gender disparity (and for the shitstorm Time magazine fired up) by teaming with its sister magazine Fortune to create a listicle called "Most Powerful Women: The Food & Drink Innovators." According to Adweek the list will comprise "25 women across various industries who have played key roles in redefining how we think about food."

Said Cowin about Time's "Gods of Food": "That sparked a conversation in the food world, but also in the world at large. Why were women missing from the picture? ... Part of the answer is that there are a lot of women in food, but they are not all chefs. There are also female politicians who work on hunger issues, women who own vineyards, women who are investing in food startups." The list will run in the October issues of Food & Wine and Fortune.

In the past there's been a lot of debate over whether separate awards and recognitions just for women is really the best way to deal with the issue. On one side you have people who are not fans of separate lists, like Anthony Bourdain (who tweeted "Why—at this point in history—do we need a 'Best Female Chef' special designation? As if they are curiosities? #2013 #50BestWhat?") and writer Charlotte Druckman, who told Eater: "Separating the women from the men is the worst possible approach to this brohaha we've found ourselves in ... You know who does such things? Extremist religious groups." On the other side you have people like chef Amanda Cohen who called gendered lists a "necessary evil." Cohen expanded on her blog: "Maybe women suck. Maybe they're just not good enough. Or, maybe, the press gives a disproportionate amount of attention to men and so those are the chefs that overworked and deadline-oppressed nomination committees and food writers focus on."

· Food & Wine, Fortune Name the Most Innovative Women in Food [Adweek]
· All Dudes of Food Coverage on Eater [-E-]