‍Sandra Jedliczka: “Borders are often crossed”

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In general: Being a woman in the catering industry — and then also a working mother — is often not that easy. In general, the position of women in society is far from what it should be — there is still a long way to go.

In my early days, I was the classic student who earned a living in the catering industry. As a young woman in service, you often reach limits in human interaction with men, and limits are very often crossed. Even when it comes to equal distribution of work, leadership skills, the appearance of female uniforms and much more, progress has not yet fully arrived.

As a mother, you are then challenged once again in a completely different way. I myself have been a mother for seven years. Mochi is a family business and I work together with my partner, so we try to divide our work and private lives halfway well. But because we're not working in a 9-to-5 job, we face major challenges every day. For other families or single parents who do not have the privilege of being able to allocate tasks as freely as we do, things are completely different in this job.

I hope that we women become much more present in our society and lead the heavily male-dominated systems into a progressive future.

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Sandra Jedliczka is co-founder of Mochi in Vienna and a pioneer in fine dining.