Digital Negotiation: Online Leisure in Coping with Gender Stereotypes

This study aimed at exploring whether cyberspace and the anonymity it provides can be useful in coping with leisure constraints that originate in gender stereotypes. The study was based on a survey that measured perceptions of parallel online and offline forms of masculine, feminine, and gender neutral leisure activities among 240 Internet users belonging to one of two age groups: adolescents and seniors. Findings indicated that offline feminine activities were perceived as more suitable for both genders in their online form. By contrast, the offline leisure activities labeled masculine were still perceived as such in their online form, with older participants even considering them more masculine in that mode. These findings suggest that online leisure plays a dual role, rendering activities more accessible to men of all ages but further discriminating against older women. It seems to broaden age and gender disparities and perpetuates power relations inherent in patriarchal societies.     

A triple whammy effect of employees' gender,job type,and service outcomes on consumer behavior

The extant literature reports inconsistent results regarding the effect of employee gender on customers' attitudes and behaviors. Furthermore, the previous research on congruency bias has mainly focused on female-dominant jobs. To address these issues, this study examined how customers' gender stereotypes affect their service evaluations and revisit intentions. Grounded in role congruity theory, congruency bias, and justification-suppression models, the results showed that employee gender and gender congruency with the norm for the job have differential impacts on customer evaluations. Furthermore, this study found asymmetric impacts of congruency bias on customer experiences. For example, customers showed lower satisfaction and revisit intention when female employees failed in a male-dominant job than when their male counterparts did. However, they showed equal levels of satisfaction and revisit intention when male and female employees failed in a female-dominant job. The results provide important insights into how to reduce customers' gender bias toward different gender-dominated jobs.     

Wearable technology in service delivery processes: The gender-moderated technology objectification effect

In the current research, we investigate how employees’ adoption of wearable technology (i.e., a front-line employee using Google Glass for a hotel check-in) influences consumers’ service encounter evaluations and revisit intentions. Building on the theoretical frameworks of technology objectification effect, person sensitivity bias and gender stereotypes, we find that wearable technology has a differential impact on service evaluations based on the employee's gender. Study 1 demonstrates that for female employees, the adoption of wearable technology leads to more favorable customer evaluations in service failure encounters. Study 2 shows that for male employees, the adoption of wearable technology leads to less favorable customer evaluations in service success encounters. We discuss theoretical and managerial implications of these findings.     

Kicking against tradition: women’s football,negotiating friendships and social spaces

This article examines friendships and social networks in the context of amateur women’s football. Studies of intimacies and friendships tend to situate women’s same-sex friendships around emotional support. The aim of this research seeks to account for more depth in understanding diversity in female friendships. The traditionally masculine (football) environment is peculiarly distinctive because it contrasts with traditional spaces found in private, domestic context that have traditionally associated with the formation and negotiation of ‘feminine’ friendship identities. Utilising 10 narrative interviews, the paper examines social and friendship networks in two main areas. Firstly, although non-traditional social groupings were evident, it was apparent that some participants had to negotiate a dual private/public role. Secondly, there were friendships based on sociability and these were integral to the connectedness of groups not defined by conventionally gendered roles, defined by emotional ties, but instead on collective interest focused around playing sport. These groupings are of interest because they are contrary to conventionality that frame emotional femininity, and foreground social activities that accentuate cultural complexities rather than confine friendship groups in terms of either masculine or feminine cultural practices. Drawing on the grounded experiences of female football players, we found that female friendships are much more layered and complex than represented in broader cultural discourse.     

Gender Relations and Sport for Development in Colombia: A Decolonial Feminist Analysis

Abstract

Playing sports has long been a taboo for women in Colombia, yet new spaces for female participation have emerged in recent decades. This article explores the gendered nature of sport in Colombia through the lived experiences of female participants involved in a local Sport for Development and Peace organization. Building on ethnographic fieldwork and a decolonial feminist perspective, the authors examine how cultural experiences of physicality are gendered but are potentially changing in the context of leisure practices and how this may shape power relations. Although more girls and women are participating in masculine leisure pursuits, there are critical limitations to social change and female participants demonstrate the coloniality of gender in action.     

Perceptions of casino dealers toward organizational justice: Are there any gender differences?

The emphasis on equity and diversity is vital for businesses to flourish. Promoting workplace equality, essential to enhance employees' satisfaction in delivering excellent service quality, requires understanding of the perception of employees as well as the problems they face. This study examines whether gender equality exists among frontline casino employees, the degree to which inequality is experienced and the consequence of such perceptions, through face-to-face, in-depth interviews with the dealers in Macao. The theory of organizational justice is adopted. Results revealed that perceived inequality and injustices were stronger among the male dealers. Male dealers perceived stronger distributive and procedural injustices than females, while female dealers perceived stronger interactional injustice than males. The perceived injustices resulted in various negative work attitudes among employees. Recommendations to improve work attitudes and counterbalance the inequities are proposed.     

Reshaping gender in airline employment

Air transport and tourism are interdependent systems wherein representations of gender are shaped by organisational cultures. Although airlines have progressed their gender balance, cabin crew work remains archetypically feminine. Taking a feminist poststructuralist approach, this paper uses thematic document analysis to examine how gendered discourses are constituted within airline organisational narratives through text, gestures and symbolic signs. Findings reveal that while airlines work to increase gender equality in employment practices, their efforts predominantly focus on the cockpit, neglecting roles beyond the flight deck. The paper recommends airlines broaden their gender equity focus to all roles and provides a basis for reshaping airlines' gender policies and practices.     

Exploring Alternative Lifestyle Segmentation Schemes for Travel Volunteers

The decrease in occupational segregation between the genders indicates a need to reposition traditionally gender-based customer services. This study examines advertising effectiveness in terms of the gender of the chef endorser in restaurant advertisements, and also explores the influence of respondents' gender stereotypes and respondents' genders on perceived effectiveness. We used the chef's gender as the independent variable, the effectiveness of the advertising as the dependent variable, and the respondents' chef gender stereotypes and genders as the moderating variables. Using consumers as respondents, an experimental design was conducted which varied the gender (female vs. male) of the chefs. We prepared a questionnaire with a sample size of 422 to investigate the consumer's perception of the adverts' effectiveness. The results indicated better endorsement effectiveness with a middle-aged male chef, rather than a middle-aged/young female chef. Furthermore, it was found that the respondents' genders could further moderate the perception of the advertising.     

Performing femininity: Women at the top (doing and undoing gender)

Tourism research has primarily treated gender as a male-female dichotomy and has been constrained by a heterosexual matrix for empirical inquires. Such research, however, has failed to acknowledge the fluidity and multiplicity in theorizing gender. To redress this overlook, this study moves away from the conventional binary thinking and views gender as a performativity which is resulted from repetitive social performance. By conducting multiple field observations and interviews with 17 hotel female general managers working in Mainland China and Taiwan, this research presents the ways of doing and undoing gender by tourism female leaders and the extent to which the everlasting gender logic can be questioned.     

Hotel managers' intentions towards female hiring: An application to the theory of planned behaviour

Hotel managers who run daily operations and interview new employees play a vital role in gender equality. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this paper examines the factors that affect hotel managers' intentions to hire females. Furthermore, this paper integrates gender attitudes into the TPB framework. Structural Equation Modelling was conducted with a convenience sample of 201 managers in Egypt. Results support the usefulness of the TPB framework. Specifically, managers' attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control were positively associated with female hiring intentions, which, in turn, predicted female hiring behaviour. Results, however, reveal negative effects of gender attitudes on the TPB predictors. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the capacity of the TPB to predict female hiring intentions and extending this model by including gender attitudes as a relevant background variable. Results position gender attitudes as an effective window of intervention for influencing female hiring.     

Discrimination of hotel employees: The role of heteronormativity and political exclusion

This study explores customers’ service evaluations based on the service provided by a hotel frontline employee with different sexualities, manipulated as effeminate or masculine. Study participants were randomly assigned to respond to a video with either an effeminate or masculine hotel employee that mimics a hotel check-in experience and after are asked to evaluate check-in service. The results suggest that participants who hold stronger heteronormative beliefs are more likely to discriminate against effeminate hotel employees when evaluating the service they provided. This effect persists for the social conservatism of the participants. The study also identified a joint effect of social conservatism and political exclusion. Without tapping into sexual orientation, this study contributes to the hospitality literature by introducing sexuality and heteronormativity and adds more content to queer studies. It also suggests the need for more protection policies, management awareness, and training regarding hotel frontline employees from a diversity management perspective.     

Still pounding on the glass ceiling: A study of female leaders in hospitality,travel, and tourism management

Today, U.S. females represent the majority in both the hospitality and tourism management classroom and the work environment. However, the proverbial “glass ceiling” continues to exist, and evidence of career advancement obstacles remain salient in the hospitality, travel, and tourism management workplace. The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of successful female industry leaders in the hospitality, travel, and tourism industry, as well as their perceptions as to how they were able to overcome gender barriers and disparities. Findings offer participant reported “top issues” facing female leaders in the workplace, as well as strategies for overcoming these issues.     

Females' perspectives on tourism's impact and their employment in the sector: The case of Petra,Jordan.

This study aims to explore the trend towards gender equality in the tourism sector of the Petra region, Jordan. To do so, a mixed methods design including a questionnaire and in-depth interviews was employed for female residents of rural and urban areas in the region. The results show that women do not have favourable view of tourism's economic impacts and that several barriers exist to their employment in the tourism sector. The findings' implications and future studies are addressed.     

Why won’t she break rules to promote service? Effects of gender,gender identification,and honesty

This paper investigates the reason and the condition under which gender is related to employee’s prosocial rule-breaking to promote service (PSBS) in two studies. Unlike typical rule-breaking, PSBS aims to improve guest service. Drawing on social identity theory and gender research, we suggest that female hospitality employees engage in fewer PSBS than their male counterparts. We further propose the moderating role of gender identification and the mediating role of honesty. Study 1 sampled 324 hospitality workers through Qualtrics and showed that female employees engage in fewer PSBS. However, the effect of gender on PSBS was weaker when gender identification was low. Study 2 sampled 246 hospitality employees who are working in the hospitality industry and studying in a college. Path analyses showed that the gender – honesty – PSBS relationship was weaker when gender identification was low. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Three decades of tourism scholarship: Gender,collaboration and research methods

Despite ongoing problems with gender inequalities in tourism, little is known about gender differences in first and solo authorships, collaboration, and choice of research approaches. This study analyzes these academic practices using 4973 articles (11,033 authors) in three major tourism journals from 1990 to 2017. The results show evidence of gender homophilic collaboration behaviors. Gender heterogeneous co-authorships are becoming pervasive and seem to be driven by female first authors. Solo female researchers strongly associate with qualitative research. While male-only teams have the lowest likelihood of using qualitative research, the situation is more complex for gender heterogeneous teams. Practical suggestions derived from the findings for the gender equality agenda in tourism are discussed to promote more gender-diverse collaborations and female-led research.     

Women managers in tourism: Associations for building a sustainable world

Women are strongly represented in the tourism workforce, albeit mainly in low-level, precarious positions. In management or on board of directors, on the other hand, women are seriously underrepresented. Interviews with female leaders from management associations in Catalonia (Spain) allowed us to identify the associations' goals and roles, the barriers women have encountered in their pursuit of high-level corporate positions, and the challenges to female leadership that lie ahead. Female associations support the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 5, creating awareness of gender barriers, enhancing social conscience on gender equality in decision-making bodies, and expanding professional networks and access to resources. Our findings show that these associations empower women by means of different strategies acting as active agents of change that help transform both their members and society.     

The better I feel,the better I can do: The role of leaders’ positive affective presence

This study adopts the affect theory of social exchange to examine the influence of leaders’ positive affective presence on employees’ service performance via employees’ energy at work and the moderating role of service climate. Based on 383 dyads of leaders and their employees in the hospitality industry, the results reveal that leaders’ positive affective presence has a positive effect on employees’ service performance. Employees’ energy at work mediates the relationship between leaders’ positive affective presence and employees’ service performance. Service climate enhances the relationship of employees’ energy at work and service performance, which in turn strengthens the indirect effect of leaders’ positive affective presence on employees’ service performance via employees’ energy at work.     

‘Classy and Never Trashy’: Young Women's Experiences of Nightclubs and the Construction of Gender and Sexuality

This article presents findings from an interpretive study that sought to understand the meanings and experiences of the mainstream nightclub culture from the perspective of young women. Specifically, how the young women's leisure experiences contested, negotiated, constructed and reconstructed feminine ideals and public displays of sexuality were examined as well as the gendered risks that they mitigate throughout this process. Seven young women, between the ages of 19 and 25, participated in the study. The findings call attention to the ways in which the young women created an alternate and desirable self through their appearance and the consumption of alcohol, how they sought male attention and the repercussions of double standards, and how they kept safe through the use of the buddy system and cautionary tales. Emphasis is placed on the highly contradictory nature of the young women's experiences as well as the significance of leisure, friendships, and gender relations.     

Moderating effects of gender and organizational level between role stress and job satisfaction among hotel employees

This study investigates the moderating roles of gender and organization level in the relationship between role stress and job satisfaction for hotel employees. A survey instrument that included measures of job satisfaction, role stress (conflict and ambiguity) and demographic information was used to collect information from hotel employees in Republic of Korea. Data from 320 respondents, representing a 64% of response rate, were analyzed. Findings show that the effect of role stress on job satisfaction is significantly stronger for female employees and supervisory employees than male employees and non-supervisory employees. Research implications and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Gender,tourism & entrepreneurship: A critical review

Dominant accounts of tourism entrepreneurship position successful entrepreneurial performance as masculine and economically informed; undervaluing gendered difference in approaches to entrepreneurship. When varying approaches are held in focus, women are positioned as ‘less than’, and in need of training and support. In reviewing the gender, tourism and entrepreneurship literature this paper draws attention to the marginal, yet decisive contributions of feminist postcolonial, political economy and poststructuralist approaches. Such approaches assist in questioning the implicit economic and masculine bias in the literature. Dominant definitions and evaluations of entrepreneurship need to be questioned, so as to challenge Global North conceptualizations of empowerment and success. Scholars ought to diversify the locations of research on entrepreneurship and gender, and engage more with policy critiques.