Does being a feminist mean abandoning cooking?

"The 20th century "

"The 1950's era

Feminism or should I be saying “Womanism” is about advancing equal rights for women in the social, political, professional, and economic domains. People call those females feminist who actually stand up and express their sentiments, fight against their rights, which differentiate them from other females. Our society with a pre-set mind believes that women have to play the usual role of cooking and looking after the family or in other terms a classic housewife.

However as a career woman of the new millennium, the thought of going into the kitchen and cooking, make you cringe as it invokes up images of the 1950’s era where women, dressed in heels, perfectly starched dresses and a string of pearls, slave away all day in the kitchen baking bread and preparing pies and everything in between? However a  much modern  example can be given from one of  the prominent characters of the famous television show "Desperate Housewives” of “ Bree Van De Kamp”. She is known for her perfectionism and home making skills, particularly her gourmet meals, breakfast treats and pineapple bran muffins. A much updated character of the 1950’s. Nonetheless, in a hectic fast-paced era, with flourishing takeaways on every block, the kitchen is going into extinction, but is not cooking just a factor of time or is it about asserting feminist ideology? An article in “The Daily Mail” sparks a debate by stressing that feminism is the cause of our fast food culture and childhood obesity. The author suggests that because the passionate feminists of the Sixties made cooking into a symbol of woman’s oppression, the decline of domestic cooking spurred a demand for the convenience food industry. The consumption of ease food has no doubt increased progressively with the dominance of two-income families, rising by as much as 300 per cent between 1997 and 2008. Many people are found eating at the fast food restaurants than at home. I don’t consent with the author’s thought, that feminism is causing childhood obesity. 

Just because women have become dual income owners in almost 70 percent of the households, thus spending much time in the kitchen doesn’t seems reasonable, along with managing demanding careers , commuting time and taking care of the kids. I’m sure my opinion here sounds like I’m a pure feminist. Equality with men does not mean that women should abandon cooking and other traditional female roles; rather, it means that culinary and other domestic responsibilities should fall equally on the shoulders of men as well. Where there are dual income owners, responsibilities should be equally shared. However I believe that media and the rising number of cooking books have made cooking an extremely fancy act, one should just choose cooking patterns in the way it fits best into their lifestyles.