A famed restaurant in Peru was recently fined $62,000 for discriminating against women by giving ladies who dined with men menus that didn’t feature any prices.
La Rosa Nautica, a pricey restaurant built on a peer overlooking the ocean in the Peruvian capital, Lima, was ordered to pay a 210,000 sol ($62,000) fine for offering women a different menu when they dined with men. While gentlemen were given a blue menu that featured both the dishes available and their prices, ladies got a gold version that mentioned no prices at all.
The owner of the high-end restaurant defended the practice by calling it a way for women to enjoy a romantic night out without having to worry about costs, but Peruvian authorities ruled that it was discriminatory against women.
In their defense, La Rosa Nautica owners said that price-free menus “extoll the position of women, considering it a pleasure for them to enjoy a romantic evening with their partner, without taking into account the cost of the services,” but the National Institute for the Defense of Free Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property disagreed. In a 3-2 ruling last week it declared that all women should have access to the same menus as men.
“These small things may seem harmless,” Liliana Cerrón, an official with the institute, said. “But at the end of the day they are the basis of a chauvinistic construct reinforcing differences between men and women.”
In addition to the $62,000 fine, La Rosa Nautica – a restaurant popular both with tourists and Peru’s upper class – will have to start offering the same menus to everyone, train its staff and post a sign clearly stating that discrimination will not be tolerated.
Interestingly, La Rosa Nautica is not the first restaurant to offer women price-free menus. Famed Los Angeles restaurant L’Orangerie used to do the same thing, giving women white menus without prices, and men green ones with prices. But they were sued for the practice in the 1980’s and agreed to drop it, which makes the use of such a practice in a time when sexism and discrimination in general is so frowned upon that much stranger.
Latest Stories
- IMF reluctant to approve bailout because of huge budget deficit – Prof. Bokpin
39 mins - Ghana has failed to play its foreign policy well – Okudzeto Ablakwa
2 hours - Ghana should be careful not to fall into a geopolitical trap – Dr. Hlorvor
3 hours - Ghana is important to the US – Okudzeto Ablakwa
4 hours - Gold Mafia: Kenyan once honoured with ‘Lifetime Africa Achievement’ uncovered as Africa’s foremost gold smuggler
4 hours - Why Ebo Whyte’s ‘Just The Tip’ is a ‘maybe’
7 hours - You can’t intervene in anti-LGBTQ+ bill; you’re not in charge – Bagbin tells Akufo-Addo
7 hours - Tarkwa Rotary Club conducts medical screening for inmates of Tarkwa prisons
7 hours - The stories of slavery must be told – US Vice President after visiting Cape Coast Castle
8 hours - GhLA CEO Hayford Siaw honoured by global philanthropy organisation, Reach for Change
8 hours - World Water Day: Youth engagement maximized to achieve SDG 6
9 hours - Livestream: PM Express discusses US-Ghana relations
10 hours - Hey please! I am in charge – Bagbin tells Akufo-Addo over anti-LGBTQ+ bill
10 hours - Bole-Bamboi MP calls for rerun of the election that approved six ministerial nominees
10 hours - ‘He devoted himself to the Danquah-Dombo-Busia tradition’ – Akufo-Addo eulogises late Kumawu MP
11 hours