Tourism

Women are well represented in the tourism labour market. In the EU in 2013, women represented over 50% of the workforce in travel agencies or tour and accommodation/food services, and over 25% of workers in the air transport sector. However, women are more represented than men in low-skilled and poorly paid jobs. For instance, women are over-represented in lower-skilled and lower-paid areas of hotel, catering and tourism (HCT) work, particularly in areas such as housekeeping and some customer service areas. On the other hand, they are under-represented in kitchen work and in areas such as engineering and security.

Women are also more often employed in part-time and temporary jobs. Furthermore, both ILO and UNWTO studies on women’s employment in the tourism field reveal that women tend to perform unpaid activities in the tourism sector such as cleaning and cooking, especially in family businesses (e.g. bed-and-breakfast establishments in family homes).

Women carry out a large amount of unpaid work in family tourism businesses. This type of work reflects stereotypical gender roles within the family. Besides the burden that a tourist family business might place on a woman, unpaid and undeclared activities performed informally by women do not provide legal protection or allow women access to social protection and health measures (e.g. there are no social benefits attached to the activities and, in the event of an accident, it will not be considered as an injury caused by a work activity).

According to the ILO and UNWTO, women in the tourism sector are employed in jobs that generally replicate gender segregation in domestic work and family care. For instance, some managers in the hotel and accommodation industry report that “women working carrying out cleaning jobs had been performing this work for many years in their own homes and that they were highly proficient workers’. These managers believed that male room attendants would be inclined to possess less experience and would be less efficient than their female counterparts”.

The segregation of women in the labour market also impacts negatively on their participation in the decision-making process: women make up only 21% of the board members of EU businesses. This gap is even wider in the tourism sector. For instance, a survey covering 78 tourism companies with information publicly available (including international tour operators, airlines and cruise ships, hotel groups and international professional associations and certification bodies) indicates that women make up 18.5% of all board members, i.e. 99 women out of a total of 526 positions. Furthermore, in the hospitality industry, women hold less than 40% of all managerial and supervisory positions.

The failure to use women’s talent to the best effect within the hospitality industry is considered to be one of the main challenges in this field. However, the same remark can be extended to the entire tourism sector.

A combination of factors prevents women from progressing to executive positions in tourism ([Baum, T., Cheung, C., 2015], [Equality for tourism, 2013]):

• cultural traditions that prescribe traditional gender roles and responsibilities at home and in the workplace, that see women segregated into low-paid jobs and prevent them from progressing to executive levels within companies
• workplace culture that reinforces these stereotypes
• discrimination against women at all stages of the recruitment process, despite the existence of equal opportunity laws.

Travel decisions are largely related to gender, life cycle and economic status. Factors such as work, and family and household obligations determine the amount and quality of time available for leisure and tourism and, in some instances, act as constraints for certain individuals. Research on gender and tourism reveals that these constraints are higher for women than for men. Economic resources, care duties and societal norms are the most relevant factors that influence women’s travel and its quality. The 2013 Eurobarometer survey reveals that women are more likely than men to mention financial reasons (49% v. 43%) among the main reasons for not travelling.

Women also declare more often than men (26% v. 20%) that they do not travel for personal reasons. Men are more likely not to travel for career-related reasons (5% v. 10%). This reflects gender imbalances in family care and domestic work. The 2014 European Commission report Gender equality in the workforce: reconciling work, private and family life in Europe, underlines that the transition from the man-breadwinner/woman-carer model towards a model based on the equal division of family and domestic work has not yet taken place. Furthermore, the European Commission study points out that, given the multiple roles women still have in societies, they spend a large amount of time engaged in domestic work even when they are the sole earner.

Sexual exploitation and trafficking in human beings sometimes occur in the tourism industry, putting girls and women at particular risk of violence and abuse. Several studies conducted on gender-based violence in the tourism sector in northern Europe reveal that women are more subject to sexual harassment and other types of gender-based violence than men in this sector:

• A 2015 survey of 1,650 members of the hospitality industry in Denmark points out that 24% of all workers had experienced sexual harassment in the previous 12 months, of which 27% were women and 19% men.
• In Finland, a 2015 survey on sexual harassment in the tourism sector reveals that 38% of the respondents had experienced sexual harassment from customers (45% of these respondents were women, and 16% were men). Furthermore, the survey shows that certain occupations, such as bartenders, waiters and hotel cleaners, are highly vulnerable to sexual harassment, as are workers who do not have fixed employment contracts.
• In Norway, a study on working conditions in the bar and restaurant sector reveals that 20% of women workers in the industry had experienced some form of sexual harassment in the previous 12 months, mainly on the part of customers, and out of these, 5% had been absent from work due to sexual harassment.
• According to official health and safety statistics in Sweden, 11% of workers in the hotel and restaurant industry had experienced sexual harassment on the part of customers in the previous 12 months, while 6% had experienced sexual harassment on the part of colleagues or managers.

Sexual harassment in the workplace and other types of gender-based violence in the tourism sector can have serious consequences, which can be categorised as societal, organisational and individual. Research carried out by EIGE on gender-based violence shows that the cost of gender-based violence to the EU can be estimated to amount to €225 billion.

The European Union makes mention of tourism in its treaties of 1992. Article 3 of the Treaty on European Union (TEU) foresaw that the EU could take measures in the areas of energy, civil protection and tourism. Furthermore, the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (Article 195) states that EU action in tourism should focus on creating a favourable environment for tourism sector development and promoting cooperation between Member States. The EU can only support, coordinate and/or supplement actions of Member States in this sector. However, it should be noted that, as a sector, tourism is influenced by and/or related to other sectors (e.g. competitiveness, transport, agriculture, culture, regional development, etc.) in which the EU has exclusive competences or shares powers with Member States. The EU thus legislates on issues that are unrelated to tourism (in the strict sense of the term), but which directly or indirectly affect tourism development.

European Commission

Even though European Commission action on tourism does not directly tackle gender issues, its intervention in other fields is particularly relevant for mainstreaming gender in the tourism sector.

One of the most relevant Commission actions that impacts upon gender equality in the tourism sector relates to entrepreneurship policies, as acknowledged by the 2003 Commission Communication Basic orientations for the sustainability of the European tourism: “EU action to promote entrepreneurship and SMEs, such as business support measures and networks, access to finance and measures in favour of small businesses and specific target groups, can help foster sustainable tourism enterprises”. The main European Commission gender equality objectives in entrepreneurship support are deployed within the instruments listed below.

• The 2008 Small Business Act ([2]): better access to finance for women; development of entrepreneurial networks for women and targeted support measures.
• Regulation no. 800/2008, which extends the granting of state aid to new enterprises created by women and has supported the creation of networks of women entrepreneurs.
• The Entrepreneurship 2020 Action Plan, adopted in 2012, urges Member States to design and implement national strategies for women’s entrepreneurship, aiming to increase the share of women-led companies; to collect sex-disaggregated data and produce annual updates on the state of women entrepreneurs nationally; to continue and expand the existing networks of female entrepreneurship ambassadors and mentors for women entrepreneurs; and to implement policies enabling women to achieve an adequate work–life balance.
• Within the priority Equal economic independence, the EU Strategy for equality between women and men 2010 – 2015, adopted in 2010, includes references to women entrepreneurship.

Regional development, and in particular EU funds, is another intervention area where the Commission priorities indirectly tackle gender equality in the tourism sector. Tourism is a specific objective of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), which also promotes social infrastructure aimed, inter alia, at ensuring a better work–life balance. This is relevant to women in the tourism sector, considering the traditional gendered care roles and the specificities of the sector (e.g. working hours).

Gender equality and tourism development in rural areas are 2 of the objectives of the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). The European Commission regulation for the EAFRD specifies that: 1) projects that bring together agriculture and rural tourism, through the promotion of sustainable and responsible tourism in rural areas, and natural and cultural heritage, should be encouraged; and 2) projects focused on women’s entrepreneurship in rural areas should be encouraged and that sub-programmes funded by the EAFRD should also focus on women in rural areas.

Furthermore, gender equality is at the centre of the European Social Fund (ESF). The main European Commission gender equality priorities promoted by ESF funding and relevant for gender equality in the tourism sector are as follows: increasing the sustainable participation and progress of women in employment; reducing gender-based segregation; combating gender stereotypes in the labour market; and promoting the reconciliation of work and personal life for all as well as the equal sharing of care responsibilities between men and women in the case of the ESF.

It is also worth noting European Commission action against gender-based violence, which can contribute to fighting tourism-related sexual violence against women and children. Some of the most relevant actions taken by the Commission in this field are:

• The Communication A strengthened commitment to equality between women and men – a women’s charter COM(2010) 78 on, inter alia, the fight against gender-based violence
• EC Directive 2011/99 of the European protection order and Regulation 606/2013 on mutual recognition of protection measures in civil matters
• EC Directive 2011/92/EU on combating sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child pornography
• Directive 2012/29/EU on common minimum standards on the rights, support and protection of victims of crime (including women)
• The Justice, rights, equality and citizenship programme 2014 – 2020, promoting gender equality and gender mainstreaming and the fight against gender-based violence.

European Parliament

The European Parliament’s resolution on the Commission’s Communication to the Council, the European Parliament, the Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on working together for the future of European tourism (COM(2001) 665 – C5-0077/2002 – 2002/2038(COS)) can be considered as an intervention to support gender mainstreaming in the tourism sector. In this resolution, the European Parliament emphasises the need to make good use of all human resources and to adopt policies to encourage disabled people, older people and women to participate in and have access to the tourism labour market, in particular by creating social infrastructures (such as nursery schools) for working mothers of children aged between 0 and 3 years. It also calls on the Member States to adopt positive tax measures to encourage entrepreneurship among women and young people, family firms, micro-businesses and SMEs and to encourage their access to new technologies and ‘learning areas’.

At the international level, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) has taken several actions to promote gender equality in the tourism sector, as detailed below.

United Nations (UNWTO)

Article 2 of the UN Global Code of Ethics for Tourism, a resolution adopted in 2001 by the General Assembly, mentions that tourism activities should respect the equality of women and men.

Furthermore, through its ethics and social dimensions of tourism programme, and in partnership with UN Women, UNWTO has been working to make gender issues visible in the tourism industry by promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment and encouraging Member States to mainstream gender issues in their respective tourism policies. This commitment resulted in the promotion of a specific action plan on gender in tourism ([3]). The plan aims to develop 2 specific programmes: a gender mainstreaming programme for the public and private sectors of the tourism industry and the women in tourism empowerment programme. The latter focuses on the following issues: employment skills; supply chains; career advancement; gender awareness.

UNWTO has also taken action to prevent sexual harassment and violence against children in tourism. These measures, set out below, are highly relevant for girls, who are more often victims of tourism-related sexual violence.

• In October 1995, UNWTO took a stand against the sexual exploitation of children in tourism by unanimously adopting the statement on the prevention of organised sex tourism.
• In August 1996, at the Stockholm congress against commercial sexual exploitation of children, UNWTO introduced its agenda for action, which urged all participants to mobilise the business sector, including the tourism industry, against the use of its networks and establishments for the commercial sexual exploitation of children, to promote better cooperation, and to encourage the establishment of national and international coalitions to this effect.
• In 1997, UNWTO launched a task force against child sex tourism, which went on to launch the international No child sex tourism campaign to combat the commercial sexual abuse of children in tourism by raising awareness of this unacceptable phenomenon. During its first phase (1997 – 2007), the focus of the task force was the prevention of sexual exploitation of children in tourism. In March 2007, the mandate of the task force was extended to cover all forms of exploitation of minors in tourism, including child labour and child trafficking. In 2011 its name was changed to World Tourism Network on Child Protection.
• In 1998, UNWTO supported the drafting of the code of conduct for the protection of children from sexual exploitation in travel and tourism.