Gender Gap In The Hotel Sector

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2.1 Gender gap in the hotel sector A study conducted by Brownell (1995), who studied the masculinity & femininity dissimilarity in the personality and career development among hotel managers, found that female workers are characterized by the strength of mind, desire, positive attitude, interpersonal skills and hard work which contributed to the career advancement of women. Women labour force is important in the hospitality industry (Doherty, 1997) and, even though women used to find it difficult to be in a managerial position, evidence now show that the trend is changing rapidly. In many service industries, it was noted that management is becoming more ‘feminine’, meaning to say that the qualities which used to be associated with women, such …show more content…

There are some unique facets of the tourism industry such as the lively experience that the employees enjoy day by day with its various events and the beauty of meeting everyday people coming from the world. As well, hotels never close. Managing in hospitality industry and tourism sector also involve its labor intensiveness, the high labor turnover, weak internal labor markets, the majority of women working in the sector and being in low positions, the 24/7 52 weeks a year operation and a low level of professional prestige. All these factors contribute in making or factors to stress on for managers to keep the daily operations smooth going and undertake a long-term planning. It has also been that male customers as well as male colleagues would perceive women managers as less capable and network with them in ways that would reduce their abilities and job success (Stalcup and Pearson, 2001). Davidson and Cooper (183), and Rosen et al. (1989), found that women managers are opposed to greater stress and career challenges because of the stereotype notions within organisations culture, with reference to women’s management skills, insufficient training, home-work conflict, poor mentoring and career guidance, paternalistic organizational cultures, promotional inequalities, sexual harassment and many other factors. Number of …show more content…

Women are usually working at the most unwanted and lowest status job in the hospitality (Adib and Guerrier, 2003; Korcynski, 2002). They are horizontally kept apart into specific jobs and areas of operations (Ng and Pine, 2003) and, vertically kept apart into jobs regarded as low in skills and consequently low in status (Purcell, 1996, p. 18). A study conducted by Woods and Viehland, 2000, found that women in hotels in the USA tend to be categorized in “pink ghetto” jobs where it is the lowest paid jobs with limited or less-obvious career paths. Women in large hotels are often employed and are recruited for their ability to provide compassion in working with people in the service sector. Purcell’s (1997) framework of horizontal and vertical segregation within the hospitality industry has clearly illustrated in the hierarchical structures of large hotels and practice continues to stereotype the roles for which woman are deemed more suitable such as housekeeping and human resources management. One more negative aspect that was notice in the hotel sector is that women is often subject to high level of sexual harassment coming from both guests and colleagues due to their low status and low education levels (Poulston,

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