Women In The Workforce Sociology Essay

Wo feat baron In The Work pull issue Sociology EssayIt has been argued that, wo manpower puddle been excluded from the study of organise, and that, when they argon studied, the abridg pass waterforcet has a lot been distorted by sexist assumptions (Acker, 1977 Ackerand Van H out(p)en, 1974 Brown, 1976 Kanter, 1975, 1977 Oakley, 1974). Prior to the industrial revolution, the family economy ope straddled as a cohesive unit typic in eachy all family members, regard slight of age or intimate activity, were engaged in juicy lying-in (Tilly and Scott, 1978). Given sexual practiceed expectations, along with a sexual activityed opportunity structure (Browne and England, 1997), we, in that respectfore, assume thatWo hands would profit from ar play handsts providing the virtually(prenominal) family-related resources andSupports in terms of both stinting capital (e.g. income, security) and social capital (e.g. less time on the muse, a supportive supervisor). Wethington and Kessler (1989) pitch wo men with towering troth commitments were much(prenominal) vulnerable to distress (see in any case Mirowsky, 1996). present tense women substantiate more go offdom in choosing the path for their future and they whitethorn decide whether or non to combine c atomic number 18er with having children. Womens increased dowery of the labour force has prompted businesses to respond to their family operates by providing flexitime, or waxy make believe schedules (Wiatrowski, 1990). Bergmann 1986 gamylights that middle associate women be having fewerer children their labour force conflict is now less responsive to their position in the family cycle. In feature as stated by Robinson, 1988 Women still do oft more house produce and family cargon than men, up to now the hours women spend performing these duties have been declining, adjournicularly among teener women. The entrance of women of all ages into the labour force in the second fractional of the twentieth century has created an another(prenominal)(a) period of structural lag (Moen and Yu, 2000). thus far although on that point has been effort catch to increase diversity, womanly employees still buttock the glass over hood when it comes to the cover management business organisations. The glass crownwork is tally to Maume,2004 a failure of women or a accredited minority groups in climbing up the bodied ladder, despite comprehend the go across jobs but still not scope them cod(p) to the jaundiced barriers.The expectations from the womens family and from the lodge whitethorn sometimes affect the decisions of women in their c atomic number 18r objectives which may act as a barrier. The society sometimes treats women incompatiblely. roughtimes oft c atomic number 18rs are cut short because of for instance maternity leave which takes women out of the workplace for months at a time where the company needs to die on. hitherto, over the last yea rs in that location was a change in the posture that women are not as effective as men and this was highlighted in the Economist Men -Tomorrows second sex. A One captain Executive Officer of a large Mauritian multi-national stated belatedly Women have done truly intimately here and moved on. Ive never come across sexist beholds. at that place are some really untroubled assertive women component models here. Women want to progress and tribes attitudes have changed.Women in cordial reception woodwind instrument and Viehland (2000) bring that although practitioners and researchers were concerned with pistillates status in hotel management, however a few empirical studies examined this topic. Whether the issue has been scrupulously studied or not, relevant literature clarified that it was widely debated (Mann and Seacord, 2003 Del Sesto, 1993). In UK, the touristry heavens was one of the area where there was the fastest growth and in the 80s threesome quarter of this growth was womens who were the most represented mainly in partime jobs ,insecure, unhopeful status and clerical post.Recent years have seen an emergence of studies that look for mobility, the role of women in the tote force and the expansion of the internationally cordial reception workforce (Baum et al,2007 Devin,Baum,Hearns,Devine2007a,2007bMatthewRuhs,2007).Today touristry presents both the opportunities and challenges for sexuality e feeling and womens empowerment. (Global make known on women in tourism 2010). Females kick in a strong proportion of the labor force in several countries awareness of the factors and the constraints that might affect their participation is increasingly required for their managers ( Burrel et al, 1997). The participation and date of women in tourism arena is being encouraged and womens participation has increased computely and indirectly in tourism sedulousness also Boxall and Purcell,2003 states that the career ladder within hotels is predicated on the conventional employment models of continuous employment and linear progression.(Bagulley, 1990, Hicks 1990 Jordon 1997 Wood 1992) identify that the tourism and hospitality empyreans are henpecked by women and managed by men in fact it is genuinely common as the service heavens is largely populated by women and they are more present bizarrely at the trim down take aim. Women are all-important(prenominal) to the hospitality labour food securities exertion ( Doherty 1997).In many of the literature review it has been obtaind and declared by many authors that women are make out participants in the tourism labour market ( Ashley,Roe and Goodwin 2001Jameison 2003) ,although there is a belief that women tend to be disadvantaged in this heavens as few women occupy the precedential decision maker positions and those that do receive less collapse ( Iverson,2000 Jordon 1997 Ng and Pine 2003 Skalpe,2007 Zhong and Couch,2007). However, we can locate forwar d assertion was that girls are now outperforming boys at every take aim in school and closing the gap at university aim. Women in fact predominate in the growing service firmament, while men are trapped in declining heavy industries the sugar industry is an ensample (In Mauritius) and that utilize men are no longer attractive marriage partners. (Tulsidas Naraidoo, 2011)It has been fix that women are more plausibly to fill part time roles , 54% of feminine workings in the sector work part time, compared to 46% of man- fit to women case for change-executive summary 2010. Beyond the rapidly increasing numbers of female entering the workplace (Mc Dougal Briley 1994), we cannot neglect womens contribution in tourism victimisation as for instance nowadays the proportion of women graduated in the sector is increasing at a rapid rate. Women are acknowledged as key participants in the tourism labor market (Ashley, Roe and Goodwin 2001 Jamieson 2003). tally to Kate Purcell the wo mens jobs fall predominantly three categoriesContingently- sexual urgeed jobs which happen to be mainly done by women but for which the demand for labour is gender-neutral.Women work in much(prenominal) jobs as a result of employers pursuit of economic advantage quite a than gendered preferences they want cheap workers, and women particularly, married women seeking part time work have historically been available for employment for lower average rank of pay up than men partly reflecting their status as component earlier than breadwinner. Crompton and Sanderson8, pp. 155-8sextyped jobs, where sexuality or other attributes assumed to be sex-related are express or implicit parts of the job specificationIn the hospitality industry it is a clich that the right kind of personality is a more important employment prerequisite than formal qualifications13,14. Where Filbys16 generateing that personality tends to be utilize as a synonym for sexual attractiveness and/or gender-specif ic tacit skills and attributes. He was told by a male manager he interviewed that recruitment of female staff was informed by a tallness for weight principle It has been mention that for some reckon house jobs it is native to have a certain type of woman which, when pressed, he outlined as ideally between 21 and 26, with long legs and a good figure. This is because the the customers expect it. This remark was highlighted by many other authors as Adkins 17, p. 109).Patriarchally-prescribed jobs where remote practice determines and prescribes appropriate job incumbency.Patriarchal prescriptions, though, is a distinct and equally powerful tendency, deriving from largely unarticulated understandings that male dominance in the home and in the public sphere and womens dependency are habitual and that these norms derive from natural differences between the sexes.Bell and Newby have set that there is thee is the deferential dialect between male and female often, as reinforcing women s economic dependency on men by providing opportunities for component waged jobs10 which the HCTC3, p. 37 note, without irony, appeal to women who entreat to combine the opportunity to earn an income with their domestic responsibilities. The more higher level and very well stipendiary the post is, the more likely it exit be filled by a man, stock-still though , women may be greater in number in the industry.Gender roles satisfy a great role for womens low involvement in direct tourism business in one get to and on the other hand many employers of this sector think that women cannot continue the job referable to their social and biological reproductive responsibilities. Such attitude of the employers about women may be due to the discriminative nature of the patriarchal system of the society.tourism provides good opportunities for female employees contribution and participation in the tourism employment. Womens entrepreneurship as well as their chastenership is important. Fem ale employee in the tourism sector earn low pay and they are sometimes under use and under represented. However tourism offers positive pathways to the female success in tourism.The world(a) report on women in tourism 2010 by UNWTO and UNIFEM (now UN Women) findings were as follows1. Women make up a large proportion of the formal tourism workforce.2. Women are well represented in service and clerical level jobs but poorly represented at professional levels.3. Women in tourism are typically earning 10% to 15% less than their male counterparts.4. The tourism sector has almost twice as many women employers as other sectors.5. One in five tourism ministers worldwide are women.6. Women make up a much higher proportion of own-account workers in tourism than in other sectors.7. A large center of unpaying work is being carried out by women in family tourism businesses.Research indicates that trust, culture, and society can influence womens employment (Constance 2005 Feldmann 2007 Forouta n 2008 fill and Oselin 2008 Read 2004) and also a good example is in the context of Malaysia, Amin and Alam (2008) also found that religion significantly influenced a womans decision regarding employment. However religion may not be the only factor discouraging women of working in hotels but also poor employee facilities and the absence of childcare facilities available in the verdant (Dayal and Didi 2001).2.2.1 Women contribution to the hospitality industryWomen are acknowledged as key participants in the tourism labor market(Ashley, Roe and Goodwin 2001 Jamieson 2003).The tourism sector is very labour intensive it provides different jobs opportunities from high skilled jobs to unskilled jobs. However Women are often concentrated in low status, low paid and precarious jobs in tourism industry as quoted in the global report on women in tourism 2010. According to Garavan etal., 2006Woods and Viehland, 2000, older managers are predominantly male women middle managers are in houseke eping, front desk, personnel and training and conference and banqueting, whereas male managers are in finance and control, property and security and purchasing the latter more likely to lead to the oecumenical managers job also as stated in the report of the fifth UNWTO international conference on tourism statistics the apparent rate of women in the sector seems also to be related to the cultural issues, oddly for employment in housekeeping, laundry, food preparation, guest services and so on. umpteen countries have a high presence of the feminine labour force in tourism this is because of the high demand of uncertified workers, especially for young women. Initially in the other hand females describe themselves much less satisfied than males in the hospitality sector. In America more than 50 % of the people who are employed in the tourism sector are women. According to Edgell, one in every fifteen people all over the world is employed in tourism sector and half of them are women. In the third world women constitute the basement of employment in tourism sector because they may work part-time, seasonally and without estimable salary. However, the industry plays a very important role for the education and liberty of women. Since tourism is a hospitality industry, the role of women is looked upon as significant and the sheer of women participation is considerably increased since the mid of 70s. According to World touristry Organization, in tourism business 51 percent are women (MOT/UNDP, 2006).Barriers face by female employees in hotelsEven though women are important for the tourism sector, barriers to the advancement of female employees continue to stop literature has singled out societys stomps and prejudices against women in positions of power (Catalyst, 2002, 2005). In fact a number of practical barriers to womens career advancement have been determine (Brownell 1993), includingthe glass ceiling found on gender discrimination pretermit of role model san absence of mentoring opportunities excommunication from informal interlocksgender discrimination and sexual curse(Knutson and Schmigdall, 1999)From Ricsevere Martell and Chri barricadoher Parker view it is stereotype which acts as a major barrier to women, they stated that women neglect characteristics most needed to succeed and consequently were often judged to be less qualified than men.However from the executive summary of the case for change Women working in hospitality, leisure, travel and tourism 2010, identify five other key barriers which according to them appear to be most significant in preventing women advancement to cured roles in the sectorthe difficulty of combining work at senior roles with caring responsibilitiesa dominant masculine organisational culturepreconceptions and gender bowlack of networking and exclusion from informal networks of communicationLack of visible women in senior positions.What can be noted is that all the authors writings upon the barr iers that stop women advancements are quite the same basically. It resemble in the sense that for example the lack of example of women at senior post, the stereotype at work or even the lack of networking. There is a serious need today to establish what kinds of work women may perform and if there are any barriers to their full integration and to identify policies and practices which might be utile for employers who wished to make interrupt use of their female workforce. (Tulsidas Naraidoo, 2011). ). However Woods and Kavanaugh (1994) according to whom gender discrimination was an invisible barrier that unbroken women from reaching top positions in many management circlesThere are other barriers identified also for instance Other authors have cited the old boy network (Brownell, 1994a Diaz and Umbreit, 1995) Women may have to work twice as tough and do twice as good a job in roll to warrant a promotion (Brownell, 1994b, Gregg and Johnson, 1996). Moreover Sekam 2000 sited that f or family reason as well as organisational demands become to both working women and their organisation that fail to rap the full potential of stupefyd women thereby becoming less productive themselves. Family constraints is another barrier that women can faced it can be seed ad a function of a females commitment to and actual involvement in duties associated with parental ,marital and homemaker roles on one hand and the amount of support she receives from her spouses and relatives on the other ( Chin-Ching 1992).Sometimes in some countries in hotel industry part-time or of informal work is the flexibility it can leap to women who may be required to spend more time working in the home (with family or care responsibilities). (ILO report). On the other hand some research indicates that religion, culture, and society can influence womens employment (Constance 2005 Feldmann 2007 Foroutan 2008 Read and Oselin 2008 Read 2004).2.3.1 Segregation in the hospitality industryThe theories of occupational sequestration on womens employment were first presented in depth by hakeem (1992). In fact the tourism industry has shown a wide borrowing of separationismal occupation (Crompton and Sunderson 1990). In the industry women frequently carry out the most undesirable and lowest status work ( Adid and Guerrier 2003 Korczynski 2002) Many authors have identified the factors which contribute to the professional marginalisation of women. The interlinked factors include gender stereotyping ( Heilman,2001) a lack a role model , mentors and peers for women in the workplace ( Noe,1988) and the glass ceiling ( Davidson and Cooper,1992 Reich 1995).Problems of gender domination include women workers crowded into a narrow range of jobs, lack opportunities for promotion and development and insufficient opportunity to develop a broad range of skills (Gardner and Plamer 1997 Haganand Jensen 1998). The Global report on women in tourism 2010, states that gender stereotyping and discrimi nation means that women mainly tend to perform job such as cooking, cleaning and hospitality.Vertical and Horizontal sex segregation has been shown to exist in the hotel industry ( Ludkins 1999). As in most organisations and occupations, there are male and female occupational groups vertically and horizontally separate throughout large hospitality organizations and hotels themselves, reflecting economic and power differences. Many studies of gender segregation have focused on international country comparisons (Jensen et al., 1988, OECD, 1999) and industry and cross sectoral comparisons (Game and Pringle, 1983 Pringle, 1988).Segregation by gender results in individual be to women workers in terms of narrower range of employment choices and opportunities along with lower pay but there are also broader economic and social costs. It is contended that gender segregation of the workforce inhibits flexibility in responding to pressures of structural adjustments and prevents expanding nat ional skills bases resulting in a less competitive economy. (OECD, 1991)The sexual division of labour resulting in the domination of industry sectors, organisations and professional by one gender is argued to be a major factor shaping workplace relations. (Game and Pringle, 1983 Burton, 1991)In general, gender inequality in the labour market is closely connected to educational and professional, both vertical and horizontal, segregation. The labour market is divided into womens jobs and mens jobs, and women find it hard to access managerial posts. (HCT ILO REPORT). Stockdale (1991, p.57) has defined occupational sex segregation as existing where the jobs, that women do are different from those done by men ( horizontal segregation) and women work at lower levels than men in the occupational hierarchy ( vertical segregation).It is still the case that relatively few women master management roles in the service areas and as a consequence few make to general management positions. This se gregation within the management ranks chance uponings adversely on the pay of women managers and their influence in this field. Tulsidas Naraidoo, 2011.2.3.2 Sexual issues in hotels.Urrys18 comment that such the service and commercial industry involve the sale of an experience, where the quality of the social interaction, including the visual presentation of interactive service workers, is an intrinsic part of the service itself. If women are routinely seen as (indeed, employed as) sex objects, what implications does this have for their career development opportunities, as individuals and as a category? synergistic service jobs in hospitality, tourism and leisure, exemplify occupations where gender (and indeed, sexuality) are plain aspects of the job. In fact tourism is associated with freedom and relaxation that have traditionalisticly been visualized in marketing and PR with images of attractive young women. (HCT ILO REPORT). Woods and Cavanaugh (1999) stated that almost one -quarter of both males and females agreed that most women in the hospitality industry had been subjected to sexual harassment at work. The ILO report that women are, more often than men, faced with precarious types of jobs, violence at work, stress and sexual harassment. It is a fact that when working in the hotel industry the service worker essential be socially attractive and friendly with the customer . An author even gave an example of a young girl who was told on starting waitress to wear her skirt as short she would feel comfortable.The main characteristics of the sexual issues are obviously the sexual harassment on the place of work that is at the hotels. Woods and Kavanagh (1994) found that hospitality managers perceive sexual harassment to be pervasive within the industry.In many customer contact roles in the service sector, sexiness is a part of the role itself, the job fiddle is encouraged as a part of the service style (Hall, 1993) and there may be a thin line betwee n selling the service and selling sexuality. The hospitality industry can be suggestible of having incidents odf sexual harassment due to the ambiguity of hospitality service , that is , the odd working hours as well as the conditions of work.2.3.3 The gender role stereotyping perspective in hotels.Stockdale (1991, p.57) assumption about the segregation and stereotype the assumption that people in particular jobs and the jobs themselves have the characteristics of only one gender. Women in the hospitality industry are widely employed in subordinate jobs for their nurturing and/or sexual attributes. Moreover differential treatment of women has been reported in recruitment, pay and career development prospects (Brown, 1979). The reason for the different treatment is the gender role stereotyping perspective. In fact women have been socialized to adopt attitudes and behavior that are in conflict with the demands of a successful managerial career (Schein, 1973, 1975 Terborg, 1977).Sinc lair (1997) found that women have been excluded from some occupations within the tourism industry due to traditional ideologies of gender and social sexuality which is very stereotyped.Stereotyping can have contradict impacts to womens advancement in the workplace, since negative stereotypes of women influence how their workers perceive them, how their other colleagues perceive their work, their selection for further training and development, and finally, the rapid pace they move in their career. Athought there are such stereotyping in the industry, studies show that female students are more committed to careers in hospitality and tourism and seem to better fit success in this sector than do their male classmates and colleagues (Kuslavan and Kuslavan, 2000 bump off et al., 2008). The female employees must be able of wearing two different hats one at work and one at home2.3.4 respite of the Glass detonating device in the Hospitality industry.The term was earlier used by Morrison et al. (1987) in their fascinating book Breaking the Glass Ceiling Can Women Reach the Top of Americas Largest Corporations? That gave new insight to the issues women face in their journey through the executive echelons of the corporate organizations and Maume 2004, stated that glass ceiling is the failure of women and other minority groups in climbing up the corporate ladder, despite seeing the top jobs, but still not reaching them due to discriminatory barriers, is what many think of as glass ceiling. There have been many studies about the breaking of glass ceiling of women in each and every industry. Cotter et al. (2001) profound description of the term as a specific form of generic inequality existing at the apex of hierarchy contradicts others (Reskin and Padavic, 2001 Maume, 2004) claiming its existence in lower levels and working class jobs.Cotter et al. (2001) three criteria for the glass ceiling occurrence suggest that it occurs when despite similar credentials women (and minorities) face barriers in their career advancements, it also occurs when due to limited promotional prospects women are discouraged from the initial placement on the job ladder, thus raising mens numbers to survive till the top levels and lastly, while organizations may be willing to pay out high salaries to women, they still hesitate to place them in positions where they can make an impact on organizations profitability, therefore, glass ceiling is created.The glass ceiling as in every industry affected also women in the hospitality industry. It has been highlighted by many authors that the industry is a female dominated industry however it is manage by men. Among the reasons for the glass ceiling phenomenon such as the lack of role models, mentoring, networking options, and the complexities of the dual role as working woman and housekeeper (Crampton and Mishra, 1999), literature has singled out societys stereotypes and prejudices against women in positions of power (Catalyst, 2 002, 2005). According to Frank (2006 do find evidence that gay/bisexual men suffer from glass ceilings similar to those faced by heterosexual women (p. 485). Existing management resistance must be offset by the multiplier effect of more female role models advancing beyond the glass ceiling.2.3.5 The promotion issues in hotels.the likes of the retail services, tourism and hospitality are sectors which are highly dominated by women however managed by men (Bagguley, 1990 Hicks, 1990 Jordon, 1997 Wood, 1992) Sometimes men get more privileged than women these differentials were reinforced by differences in fringe benefits, with men in the commercial hospitality sector significantly more likely than women to be entitled to valuable perks such as company cars, free or subsidized meals, low-cost housing, private health insurance, company helping ownership schemes and product discounts. . Many authors tend to attribute the finding that males are provoked more frequently and rapidly than e qually qualified females to the influence of gender based stereotypes (Owen and Todor, 1993 Cordano et al., 2002 Tomkiewicz et al., 2004). The hospitality business, therefore, provides fewer opportunities for promotion that are sufficient to meet the expectations of females (McCuddy et. al., 2010).2.3.5.1 Women in management level in HotelsLudking (1999) notes the lack of women in general manger positions despite the high percentage of women in college and university hospitality programs. Although women are now graduating in higher numbers than men from educational institutions (Fagenson and Jackson, 1994) and more women are entering the paid workforce (Hind and Baruch, 1997) and taking up managerial roles (Parker and Fagenson, 1994), the poor representation of women at senior management level continues. act a managerial career in every industry requires skills and competencies imparted to men as a social group. Employees and managers holding this type of stereotypic view are likely to perceive women as ineffective managers in job positions incongruent with females more traditionally passive gender role. (Schein, 1973, 1975, 1978 Rosen and Jerdee, 1974 Powell and Butterfield, 1979 Brenner et al., 1989 Schein et al., 1989 Schein and Mueller, 1992 Schein et al., 1996 Heilman et al., 1995 Powell et al., 2002). It is not hard to find in the western context where patterns of gender inequality persist in leadership positions even with womens increasing visibility in the lower echelons of management (Weyer, 2007). Ezell et al. (1981) measuring the effects of having being supervised by a woman on perceptions of female managerial competence found significant differences only in the area of the motivation of a woman to manage. In the present study, direct contact could not help in suppressing gender stereotypes. By June 1996 only three of 72 Hong Kong Hotels had female general managers (Pine 1997). Womans commit for advancement into a senior-level leadership position b ecomes more difficult because of the plethoric traditional role assumptions (Schaap et. al., 2008). Moreover, research conducted in the U.S.A. indicates that, even in America, a disproportionate low number of highly educated females attain executive status in the industry (Li and Leung, 2001). The career ladder within hotels is predicated on the conventional employment models of continuous employment and linear progression (Boxall and Purcell, 2003). Some literatures state that the recruitment and selection processe may not be transparent. some(prenominal) may be likened to an invisible web that works against women (Green and Cassell, 1996 Lan and Wang Leung, 2001 Rees and Garnsey, 2003).2.4.1 anguish at workAn additional negative aspects to womens work in hotels is that they are subject to high level of sexual harassment from both guests and peers due to their low status and low-educational levels ( Poulston 2008). Research by Eller (1990) clearly indicates that more men and wom en experience sexual harassment in the hotel industry than do individuals in society-at-large. Today in many hotels there are a high level of female employee of gender discrimination and sexual harassment.2.5 Inequality issues in hotels.Research shows the different ways in which tourism can contribute to economic growth, poverty reduction and community development. However, less attention has been paid to the unequal ways in which the benefits of tourism are distributed between men and women, particularly in the developing world. Gladys Acosta, UN Women Director for Latin America of the newly-establish UN theatrical UN Women, pointed out that womens contribution to the tourism sector is often invisible. According to Purcell and Quinn (1998) that it is a fact that in the early career stages, female hospitality graduates original lower pay, fewer fringe benefits and less intrinsic job satisfaction. However Woods and Kavanaugh (1994) according to who gender discrimination was an invi sible barrier that kept women from reaching top positions in many management circles. There also continues to be wide discrepancies in remuneration between the genders (Mun oz-Bullo n 2009 Tugores 2008. The hospitality sector has an important role it should respect the equality of men and women they should promote human rights and more particularly the individual rights of the most vulnerable groups, notably children, the elderly, the handicapped, ethnic minorities and indigenous people. ILO report (Development and challenges in the hospitality and tourism sector 2010). Kinnaird and Hall (1994) comment that women fulfill the majority of jobs in tourism, especially those which are poorly paid, low skilled and part-time also it is to be noted that in the tourism sector unskilled or semi-skilled women tend to work in the most vulnerable jobs, where they are more likely to experience poor working conditions, inequality of opportunity and treatment, violence, exploitation, stress and sex ual harassment. (ILO ) Carli and Eagly (2001) observe that, although womens status has improved remarkably in the twentieth century in many societies, women continue to lack access to power and leadership compared with men (p. 629).