“In the culture we work so hard to maintain, respect is given and received,” Calcote says firmly.
Maynard reports the only gender-related challenge she faced after becoming a general manager was her family’s anxieties about her being alone downtown at night. “I didn’t notice any men making those same calls (home),” she says. Christine Parkhurst, recently appointed general manager of Hank’s Seafood Restaurant, also has had to shrug off chivalry: “The server assistants like to take plates out of my hands a little more,” she says. “They’re Southern gentlemen.”