Who Belongs In The Kitchen? A Systematic Review Literature Of Gender, Space And Domestic Practice

The theoretical frameworks of Hegemonic Masculinity Theory and Doing Gender Theory help explain how gender roles are continuously produced and maintained through everyday activities. These perspectives show that gendered kitchen practices are not simply individual choices but are influenced by social expectations, cultural norms, household relationships, and institutional structures. The review also highlights that gendered divisions of kitchen labour extend beyond the home into professional and institutional kitchens, where women may perform a large proportion of the work while remaining underrepresented in managerial and technically prestigious positions.            Overall, the review concludes that the modernisation of kitchen spaces does not automatically lead to the transformation of gender roles. Meaningful change requires more than improved appliances, contemporary interiors, or increased media representation of men cooking. It requires a redistribution of domestic responsibilities, recognition of unpaid household labour, inclusive kitchen design, and changes in the cultural beliefs that determine who is expected to cook and care for others. The review provides an interdisciplinary understanding of the relationship between gender, space, and domestic practice. However, the reported PRISMA figures contain inconsistencies between the number of records identified, duplicates removed, and relevance classifications. Therefore, the final number of studies included needs to be verified before the review can be considered fully reproducible. Despite this limitation, the themes identified in the document provide a useful foundation for further empirical research into gender equality, women's agency, and the transformation of kitchen spaces. The question of who belongs in the kitchen should not be answered through traditional gender expectations. The kitchen should be understood as a shared domestic space in which all individuals can participate freely, exercise agency, and contribute to household responsibilities regardless of gender. The theories of Hegemonic Masculinity and Doing Gender allow one to understand the continuous production and maintenance of gender roles through daily practices. This implies that gender practices in the kitchen cannot be seen as choices of individuals, but rather can be understood from the perspective of expectations in society and culture, relationships within the household and institutions. The review also stresses the fact that gender division of kitchen labour extends even to professional and institutional kitchens where women do much of the work while being under-represented among managers and professionals. The review shows that modernisation of the kitchen environment does not imply the transformation of gender roles. To create any real change, one should not just have better technologies and designs, as well as representations of men cooking in the media, but redistribute domestic chores, recognise the invisible work in the household, make the kitchen accessible for all, and transform cultural perceptions about who should take care of other people.

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