Women in leisure management

Introduction:

The world today is a vast stage on which there are several different kinds of industries. Within these industries, there are various kinds of roles that people play, and each role has its own merit. Many roles or jobs may be considered to be important positions, and therefore, require the most skilled individuals to handle them. Sometimes, particular types of people are best suited to these positions, and so, these types of positions become popularly noted according for their requirements.

It is thought that there are suitable employment opportunities for women in Leisure Management, and that there are roles that are best suited to women in the tourism industry. Investigating the tourism industry and employee opportunities within it will be interesting, as it would help to expose the opportunities for women, the problems faced by women employed in the industry, and the underlying factors determining these problems as well as the future outlook for women.

Top of Form

Tourism/Hospitality Services:

Like retail services, tourism and hospitality are sectors that accommodate women mainly. However, control is essentially in the hands of men since they are in senior management positions. Women rarely occupy these senior positions. It has been pointed out that Hospitality and Tourism Services in the United States of America, to a certain extent, displays gender neutrality^[1]. However, this is only evident in the management positions in the lower and middle levels. It is the senior management level, which is believed to be of concern, and this is because women occupy only 0.50% of senior management positions. The same trend exists in the United Kingdom in which women account for only 4% of the senior and middle management positions^[2].

Regarding top management positions, women account for only 1% of the positions. However, according to research in four European countries, it was found out the trend was much more favorable in the United Kingdom. It was also found that the number of women managers is increasing, but their area of responsibility is concerned with small units, as compared to men, who are managing much larger units^[3]. Women accounted for 54% of all hotel managers’ positions. Women also accounted for 49% of all restaurant managers’ positions.

It must be mentioned that employment opportunities for women in the tourism industry has not been studied in great detail. However, the same trends exist in both the tourism and hospitality industries. Women occupy most of the positions in the tourism industry (Rogers, 2003, 211). These jobs are usually of a part time nature with low wages and low skill involved. This situation has come about because, generally speaking, women have been discriminated against due to gender stereotyping.

Opportunities for Women in the Leisure Industry:

There has been some research conducted in the United States of America and the United Kingdom regarding employment opportunities for women in leisure management. In one such study, it was found that men dominated leisure services. To some, this is surprising because it is often thought that women are more suited to jobs within the tourism and leisure industry. Regarding sports management, it was found that women dominated lower levels of management. However, the senior management positions did not employ many women.

Earlier research mentioned that women specified some gender-related problems that were making it very difficult to get senior management positions. The problems ranged from low salaries and benefits to little or no childcare as well as problems, which took place in families^[4]. It was also mentioned that women have much lower career development hopes than men. This has been verified by other research. It was also mentioned that most women said that they felt that they had very few chances for career development as compared to males. These patterns are evident in the service industries of the United States of America and the United Kingdom. Regarding the leisure industry in the United Kingdom, it must be asserted here that it includes sporting services, recreational services and cultural services. It has provided 289600 permanent employees, and 209600 part time workers with jobs^[5].

Overall, while the leisure industry employs almost the same number of women as men, gender segregation continues to persist with regard to level of employment. Interestingly, when considering recreational, cultural and sporting services, it is men who account for 48.3% of all the positions. However, men account for 62.2% of all full time jobs. With women, it is the other way around, as they occupy 51.6% of all positions while they occupy only 37.7% of all full time positions. Gender segregation varies to a great extent in sporting and recreational services in which a much lower number of women are in full time positions as compared to entertainment and cultural services^[6].

Females account for only 16.7% of full time posts in recreational and sports services while double this amount of men occupy these same full time posts. Women are between five and six times more likely to be employed in part time posts as compared to men in cultural services, museums and libraries, although these services have long been viewed as favoring female employees. Leisure services are gender-segregated by vertical levels of employment as well as being ender-segregated by horizontal levels of employment. Women account for only 4.9% of Chief Executive posts in the public sector, and they were employed in only 6.9% of Chief Officer posts. In the United Kingdom, women headed only 7 of the local authority Leisure Departments out of 146, which is less than 5% of all posts available. Regarding facility management, the post of client manager, which began due to compulsory competitive tendering, are dominated by men who could account for 80% of all such posts^[7].

Leisure Management and Gender Discrimination:

When women were asked if there was gender discrimination in their organizations, 16.3% of women employees said that they knew about other women employees who were subjected to gender-discrimination. Regarding personal experience of gender-discrimination, 14.7% of women employees said they were subjected to gender discrimination^[8]. Many women further asserted that their organizational cultures were the reasons behind the discriminatory practices rather than discriminatory structures within their organizations. Gender-discrimination is very difficult to identify with regard to promotion, selection and recruitment, as it could easily be unclear due to many reasons. Gender-Discrimination takes place today in a very informal way. One way of looking at it is to study the attitudes of elderly men towards women in senior positions. Many women employees say that respect does not come easily and women are not taken very seriously.

Many women said that confident male employees were considered for higher posts while confident women employees were considered as being overly assertive. When women employees were subjected to any personal experience of gender-discrimination, the normal course of action included making a verbal complaint to her superiors. The least likely scenario would be for women employees to make a complaint in writing. Whichever method was chosen, whether verbal or written, it would result in little or no action. If any action were taken at all, it would often be ineffective. Many women felt that they were being made to forget about their experience and move forward. Other women were being made to feel that gender-discrimination was part of the job. Even the Human Resources Department would be ineffective in this regard.

Conclusion:

The above-mentioned facts prove beyond doubt that a woman will have to endure many problems, which will restrict her future career development. The problems could be categorized as structural restrictions and cultural restrictions. The structural restrictions would include inflexible employment practices as well as fewer provisions for women employees with children. The cultural restrictions include the domination of leisure management by men and fewer women in senior posts who could be looked up to by younger women in junior posts. Even though women have to bear the above-mentioned problems, they are very optimistic about their career development within leisure management. However, it must be added that although women are being employed in the senior management positions, they are getting middle management salaries with chances of promotion that are not mentioned. Another point to be mentioned is the fact that women prefer to choose leisure management careers rather than having children as they consider that they may be in conflict with each other.

Finally, it needs to be asserted that women choose jobs in tourism and leisure management because these jobs generally suit their personalities. However, in order to work within this industry and others as well, there are obstacles to overcome.

References:

Aitchison, Cara., Brackenridge, Celia., & Fiona Jordan. 2006. Gender Equity in Leisure Management. www.ilam.co.uk/downloads/gender.pdf

Amoah, V. A. & Baum, T. 1997. Tourism education: policy versus practice.

International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, MCB UP Ltd. Feb 1997 Volume: 9 Issue: 1 pp: 5 - 12.

International Journal of Tourism Research, 10 Jun 2003. Volume 5, Issue 3, Pages 246 - 247.

Rogers, T. Conferences and Conventions: A Global Industry, pp 211.

Footnotes

^[1] International Journal of Tourism Research, 10 Jun 2003. Volume 5, Issue 3, Pages 246 – 247.

^[2] ibid

^[3] Amoah, V. A. & Baum, T. 1997. Tourism education: policy versus practice.

^[4] International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, MCB UP Ltd. Feb 1997 Volume: 9 Issue: 1 pp: 5 – 12.

^[5] Aitchison, Cara., Brackenridge, Celia., & Fiona Jordan. 2006. Gender Equity in Leisure Management www.ilam.co.uk/downloads/gender.pdf

^[6] Aitchison, Cara., Brackenridge, Celia., & Fiona Jordan. 2006. Gender Equity in Leisure Management www.ilam.co.uk/downloads/gender.pdf

^[7] ibid

^[8] Aitchison, Cara., Brackenridge, Celia., & Fiona Jordan. 2006. Gender Equity in Leisure Management www.ilam.co.uk/downloads/gender.pdf