Women of the pie: 3 pizza industry leaders relay lessons learned The road to the top in the pizza restaurant industry can be a rough one for professional women, but these three leaders show not only that it can be done, but done well and with a sense of responsibility to the women coming up behind them. Photo: iStock. March 10, 2021 Like so many things in the culinary world, pizza has had a reputation for being a product put forth mostly by men. Perhaps that's why the pizza restaurant segment took so long for women to enter in any meaningful way. The good news is though that, like the smoke from a perfectly stoked pizza oven, those days are fading away. Women are taking the reins of some of the leading brands vying for the customer's share of stomach today.