Gender, Work and Tourism

M Thea Sinclair, M. Thea Sinclair

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2005
• Print ISBN:
  9780415109864
  9780415109857
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781134837090
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Hospitality, Travel & Tourism Industry
• Index: Social Sciences

Gender, Work and Tourism examines the central role played by women in the tourism industry. It discusses the nature of their work and the ways in which tourism creates tensions between the attitude and conduct of tourists and the beliefs and behaviour of local women.
Among the areas explored are: the segmentation of tourism work in Northern Cyprus; women's and men's work in Bali and the division of social and political power; gendered tourism work in Mexico and the Philippines; material and ideological changes in sex tourism in South-East Asia and the exploitation of South-East Asian women in Japan.

Chapter 1

Issues and theories of gender and work in tourism

M.Thea Sinclair

INTRODUCTION

Underlying the images of hedonism and leisure which are commonly associated with tourism is a large amount of work. Holiday-makers engage in tourism to escape from their daily tasks and routines but their leisure and entertainment, along with the services provided for business and special interest tourists, are premised on the labour provided by workers in the tourism industry. The divide between incoming tourists and those working in the industry is particularly acute in many tourist destination areas, where contrasting lifestyles of leisure and work are compounded by considerable differences in income and wealth. The tourism industry is characterized by further divisions between the workers themselves, notably in the form of gender and race. While not as evident as those between tourism consumers and producers, such divisions are significant not only for the operation of tourism but for the relative incomes, status and power of those involved in it. Paradoxically, there has been little attention to these issues to date, the main exceptions being the collections edited by Kinnaird and Hall (1994) and Swain (1995) and a number of individual articles and chapters, particularly in the area of prostitution tourism.

This book aims to contribute to the literature on tourism and gender using a comparative international perspective, integrating the relatively unrelated literatures on tourism, gender and work. The chapters consider a range of tourist locations: the UK, Northern Cyprus, Bali, Mexico, the Philippines and Japan. The studies in the book examine the gendered structure of the tourism workforce in the different international destinations and help to explain the processes which reinforce or challenge gendered patterns of work, gender ideologies and distinctions in income, status, power and control.

The following section of this chapter will discuss a number of issues which have been raised in recent tourism literature and which are related to the theme of gender and work in tourism, notably cultural commoditization, the structuring of work in small tourism businesses and larger firms and the interrelationships between gender, paid and unpaid work. Theories which have been used to explain the gendered structure of the labour force will then be considered in order to provide a context for the studies which are included in the book. The subjects and issues which are examined by each of the authors will be outlined in the final section. The contributions which the authors make to the literature and to an understanding of the gendering of work in tourism will be discussed in the concluding chapter.

GENDER AND TOURISM—RECENT CONTRIBUTIONS

The discussion of gender and work which is included in this section is selective in focusing mainly on recent research, in which the topic has been considered explicitly. The cases considered provide useful examples of the role of gender in work. The discussion uses Swain’s definition of gender as ‘a system of culturally constructed identities, expressed in ideologies of masculinity and femininity, interacting with socially structured relationships in divisions of labour and leisure, sexuality and power between women and men’ (1995: 258). This definition has the advantage not only of providing consistency with previous literature but of signalling the inequalities of work, power and control which gender relations involve.

Work in the tourism sectors of destination areas is concentrated particularly in retailing, accommodation and catering, selling, entertainment and transportation provision. Work involves both material transactions and ideological relations, so that a change in either can involve an alteration of work relations within tourism. The commoditization of culture constitutes a type of production and commercialization which demonstrates ideological as well as material aspects of tourism transactions, involving the transformation of traditional artefacts and practices into commodities which are sold to tourists. As Picard (1993) points out, it is often assumed that tourism impacts on the traditional culture of destinations, strengthening or eroding it in a unidirectional process, while the outcome is, instead, a product of interactions between tourists and local people. Tourists, along with community and governmental organizations, provide material support for particular aspects of local culture so that cultural commoditization has repercussions within the wider political domain (Harrison, 1992; Picard, 1993).

The gender dimensions of cultural commoditization were examined by Swain (1993) in a study of ethnic arts production. Swain showed that most of the Kuna and Sani women who produced handicrafts for tourist markets gained increased power within the household but not within the wider society, where traditional gender roles persisted. The main effect of cultural commoditization appeared to be to counter cultural assimilation, while the responses of individual women to the opportunity to produce for tourist consumption varied significantly. This view is supported by Cone’s (1995) detailed study of two Mayan women, one of whom produced handicrafts based on traditional methods and designs, the other providing new craft forms. The first befriended tourists and provided them with increased knowledge of and interactions with traditional Mayan culture. The second, in accordance with her different personal background, identified with tourists and, aided by her earnings from tourism, rejected traditional norms. What both women had in common was the active role which they played in their interactions with tourists and their ability to step outside traditional modes of conduct for Mayan women.

Men can also act as ‘cultural brokers’ in their relations with tourists although, in Pruitt and LaFont’s (1995) study, this occurred within a context in which Jamaican men formed sexual relations with women tourists. The study again raised the issue of the effects of tourism on traditional norms and demonstrated the ways in which power and control are negotiated and can change in new contexts. Women tourists obtain some power by providing men with increased material resources, while men retain much of their power owing to the persistence of many facets of traditional gender roles. The relationships between women tourists and local men generally encounter disapproval from the local community. This is also the case for the Otovaleños in Ecuador, who only accept foreign women into the community if they work hard and conform to local values (Meisch, 1995). In Japan, tourism alters power relations by generating earnings for local people. Holidays based around weaving activities also provide the Japanese women who participate in them with a legitimate purpose for leaving the constraints of their family or paid employment, thereby gaining increased control over their lives (Creighton, 1995).

The provision of accommodation in agro-tourism co-operatives alters prevailing gender norms and enables Greek women to gain increased income and power (Castelberg-Koulma, 1991). Women’s work legitimates their access to such public spaces as the village cafe. However, it is still generally unacceptable for Greek women to frequent coffee houses and tavernas and, elsewhere, it is only some of the younger women who are modifying traditional gender roles by entering bars which cater for tourists from Athens (Moore, 1995). Work in accommodation provision may, in contrast, reinforce prevailing gender norms as in the case of Catalonia and Galicia in Spain, where women’s work in catering for tourists who stay on farms is seen as an extension of their domestic roles (García-Ramón et al., 1995). Many women in West Java are responsible for managing small-scale accommodation establishments and also work in such activities as selling food and fruit in the informal sector (Wilkinson and Pratiwi, 1995). Their tourism-induced work load has not been offset by greater help with childcare from their male partners who work as tour guides, in tourist transportation or fish at sea. Employment in relatively large enterprises in the formal sector is dominated by non-locals.

Segmentation in the structure of men’s and women’s work in tourism also occurs in the diverse tourist destinations of Cornwall, the rest of the UK, the Republic of Ireland, Greece and the Caribbean. Women’s work in Cornwall is concentrated in the retailing, hotel and catering sector and tends to be seasonal, part-time and low-paid, although many women have worked in the same tourism establishments for many years (Hennessy, 1994). The majority of the tourism enterprises are owned and managed by outsiders. Work in the UK tourism industry demonstrates considerable flexibility (Bagguley, 1990), although the type of flexible work undertaken is usually related to the worker’s gender (Urry, 1990). The characteristics of women’s work in retailing and accommodation provision in the Republic of Ireland are very similar to those in Cornwall, with a segmented division of labour within the hotel sector but a lower overall labour force participation rate (Breathnach et al., 1994). Within the formal and informal accommodation sectors in Greece, women undertake the tasks most akin to their domestic labour, such as bed-making and cleaning, for which they receive relatively low pay (Leontidou, 1994). A gendered division of labour also prevails in the accommodation and retailing sectors of the Caribbean, where local men perceive women’s participation in servicing activities in the accommodation sector in the context of their domestic caring and mothering role (Momsen, 1994). Western Samoa provides fascinating examples of entrepreneurial roles for women in tourism, including the establishment of hotels, restaurants, handicraft production and retailing, in a context of equal rights of access to family resources for women and men (Fairbairn-Dunlop, 1994). The establishment of a Women’s Advisory Committee, supported by a key woman entrepreneur, has resulted in the provision of training for local women, who produce handicrafts for the tourist market. An issue of concern is the extent to which the ethos of production in the context of kin and community needs will change as capitalist work relations are introduced following foreign investment in the accommodation sector.

Gender norms affect both the ways in which labour is supplied within the tourism sector and the nature of the demand for it. Consideration of the demand-side raises the issue of what tourists expect to consume. Urry (1990) argues that consumers envisage the process of purchasing and consumption as involving the provision of a ‘social experience’ which is conditioned by dominant cultural relations. Consumers’ expectations differ in relation to both their gender and that of the employees with whom they interact. According to Broadbridge (1991) in the context of retailing and Adkins (1995) in the context of leisure parks, sexuality is an integral component of social relations. Managers require female employees to dress in a stereotypically feminine fashion and to respond positively to sexual innuendos as part of their interaction with male consumers. Thus, gendered and sexualized modes of behaviour and appearance are often demanded and supplied as part of tourism transactions.

The extreme case of sexualized conduct in tourism is that of prostitution tourism, which has been much discussed by previous authors, for example, Barry (1979), Cohen (1982), Graburn (1983), Truong (1990), Lee (1991), Hall (1992) and Sturdevant and Stoltzfus (1992). Hall (1994) points out that sex tourism results from a range of material factors, including government and foreign interests, and Lee (1991) indicates the ways in which ruling groups in destination countries have supported prostitution tourism. The structure of the sex tourism industry has also evolved according to changes in material circumstances and associated political interests. Leheny (1995), for example, argues that increasing demand for tourism by Japanese women has played an important role in inducing the Thai government to restrain the most overt manifestations of the sex tourism industry, in an attempt to attract a share of the growing market.

It is clear from the above discussions that women are important producers in the tourism industry and their growing involvement in the paid labour markets of many countries is also increasing their role as tourism consumers. Work in tourism, as in other sectors of the economy, is structured along gender lines and generally conforms to dominant gender norms. A number of explanations of why this is the case will be considered in the following section.

THEORIES OF GENDER AND WORK

Feminist theories which attempt to explain the gendered structure of the workforce differ in terms of both the degree of importance which is attached to capitalism and patriarchy in determining men’s and women’s role in the workforce and the extent to which the two systems are interrelated. The view that class differences dominate the structure of the labour force is characteristic of the Marxist end of the Marxist-feminist spectrum of analysis. Women’s major responsibility for household production and more marginal participation in the paid labour force is said to reduce the cost of reproducing the labour force, thereby permitting employers to lower average wage rates (Himmelweit and Mohun, 1977).

This theory has been subject to the well-known criticisms of failing to explain why women rather than men bear the major responsibility for childcare and domestic labour and radical feminists have argued that it is heterosexuality rather than capitalism which underlies inequality between men and women in the domestic and paid work arenas (Rich, 1983; Raymond, 1986). However, heterosexual relations can only be the root cause of unequal work relations if they incorporate some mechanism whereby men control women’s access to paid work and prevent them from retaining a level of income which permits their independent decision-making and survival. It is not evident that heterosexuality, per se, incorporates such a mechanism. The concept of male control over women’s access to particular occupations is, nevertheless, persuasive and forms the basis of the patriarchal component of the ‘dual systems approach’.

Dual systems analysis posits that capitalism creates a hierarchical structure in the paid labour force but is indifferent as to whether men or women occupy specific positions within it. Access to occupations is, instead, determined by patriarchal relations which involve men’s control over women’s labour, resulting in women’s employment in low wage jobs, continued dependence upon men and greater unpaid work within the household (Hartmann, 1979, 1981; Walby, 1986, 1990). Capitalism and patriarchy are, thus, viewed as separate systems within dual systems analysis. Patriarchal relations are also said to predominate within pre-capitalist modes of production when the products of women’s unpaid work are sold by men, who retain a considerable proportion, if not all, of the income from them (Delphy, 1977).

Theories which view capitalism and patriarchy not as separate but as interrelated systems (for example, Mies, 1986; Pateman, 1988; Acker, 1990; Cockburn, 1991) may be included within a general approach termed patriarchal capitalism (Adkins, 1995). According to this approach, employers’ demand for labour occurs in the context of gendered supplies of male and female labour, producing an occupational hierarchy which is itself gendered in such a way as to further profit maximization. Thus, employers create jobs in a range of occupations which are associated with gendered characteristics and they demand male or female employees who will provide these characteristics. In this way, capitalism takes advantage of prevailing gender definitions, whose origins pre-date the capitalist system of production. Historical analyses of the labour market have provided useful insights into the formation of gender norms, the association of women with the domestic sphere and the...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Halftitle
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of tables
• Notes on contributors
• 1 Issues and theories of gender and work in tourism
• 2 Gender takes a holiday: Representation in holiday brochures
• 3 Women’s employment in UK tourism: Gender roles and labour markets
• 4 Chances and choices: Women and tourism in Northern Cyprus
• 5 Gender and tourism development in Balinese villages
• 6 Gender and tourism employment in Mexico and the Philippines
• 7 Tourism and prostitution in Japan
• 8 Gendered work in tourism: Comparative perspectives
• Index