Gender Issues in the Hospitality Industry of UK: Women and the Managerial Position

Issues on gender such as biases, discrimination, and equality have always existed ever since the early ages. Although perhaps, the movement for gender equality gradually evolved in the late 19th century and was fuelled by women movements in the 20th century; the mild, moderate and radical feminist groups mustered their organizing influence to slowly inflict change in the society (Kimmel 2000). For instance, the barrier that significantly defined the fate of every woman in the employment sector particularly in the hospitality industry has been increasingly downgraded by the emphasis on competitiveness and productiveness.

While the traditional system had emphasized the necessity for strength due largely for the lack or insufficiency of machines, this era highlights the essence of competence and intellectual capital. This phenomenon is even more prevalent on developing and underdeveloped countries. Further, the family, the school and the religious sector also influenced the line of thinking of people. In effect, the sociological perspective can be used as a framework for this occurrence.

This paper aims to response the query on why more women do not achieve senior management positions in the hospitality industry in UK. Furthermore, it will also provide an evaluation of the extent of work-life balance initiatives that will help employers and women managers to raise the glass ceiling. All information on this report is based on the theoretical understanding and application of the aforementioned concept.

Discrimination and Women in the Workplace: Why do women do not achieve senior management position?

Consider the following facts accessed from the Equal Opportunities Commission (Women and Men in Britain: Management 2002) available online:

- The men’s proportion in the eleven managerial sub-groups is higher than women (nine out of eleven in favor of men).

- Britain has a total of more that 2.6 million men and 1.1 million women composed the managerial and senior officer positions recorder in Spring of 2001.

- The 14% of the total employment in the specified group is divided into 18% men and 9% women.

- Only thirty percent of women are accounted to occupy a manager’s position in 2001.

Further, statistical findings show, “18.8 per cent of managers are women, while at senior levels of management women occupy only 8.3 per cent of jobs” (Davison and Cooper 1992.) For the record aside from the given details above, the issues of discrimination in the managerial setting have been regarded in more than a few studies as its focus of investigation. Greater parts of the existing literatures have studied particular companies and organizations with the existence of prejudice, bias, unfairness and partiality particularly those instigated by gender (Martell, 1996; Broadbent, Hallock, and Hendricks, 1998; Larwood and Trentham, 1998; Hultin, and Szulkin, 1999; Balu and Tatum, 2000; Kidd and Ferko, 2001; Guttierez, Loucopoulus, and Payur, 2002).

Gender discrimination in UK is prevalent and usually, the most common victims are women. According to Amicus (2003), a voluntary and non-profit sector that concerns issues such as employment discrimination, “there are 5.4 million employees currently working for establishments with less than 19 staff.” Moreover, “over a fifth or 21.8% of the UK workforce is employed in the small firms sector, and female workers are being discriminated against as almost a third of UK women employees working in these establishments” (Amicus 2003). This has been conducted using a quantitative research.

Sexual difference is not a matter of pre-existing categories with set contents, but is an interval or gap – a radical difference – between the sexes' experiences and knowledge’s. It does not fit clearly into the dualism of nature and culture (Grosz 1994). Sex discrimination is within the scope of the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 and the Equal Pay Act 1970, which make it illegal for employers to discriminate against employees on the grounds of sex or marital status (Gittens 2002). Its principle is apparently to promote gender equality. However, Gittens stated that sex equality is still undermined by the fact that women and men do not enjoy equal rights in practice. Certain examples of this inequality are: employment rates are higher for women without children; and women’s employment is concentrated in non-manual occupations, in particular clerical, sales and personal/protective occupations (Bower 2000). In addition to this, “a gap in lifetime earnings of £140,000 is experienced by a mid-skilled mother of two in addition to a gender earnings gap of £241,000, a total of £381,000 earnings foregone over a lifetime compared with an equivalently educated man” (Gittens 2002). This has been sorted using quantitative research method. Furthermore, with half of the people who graduated first degree in 1999 were women, it is ironic that approximately 15,000 men aged 18-24 obtained a first degree in engineering and technology, compared with around only 3,000 women. Employment rates are higher among women with a higher level of qualification (Bower 2000). Again, quantitative has been used to acquire such information.

Another problem is that gender discrimination would also result to job discrimination as evident to the hospitality industry. According to Cohn (2000), the types of jobs available to women are due to changes in women's historical aspirations. Furthermore, he added that in the early twentieth century, women were very traditional and only wanted standard women's jobs such as teacher, nurse, and secretary. But women's consciousness changed in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. They became more ambitious and career oriented. Because of women's greater occupational goals, they are applying for more demanding professional jobs that involve more responsibility and even higher pay. Nowadays, women take jobs that are dependable with their needs, and they don't take jobs that are not consistent with their needs. Women take only the kinds of jobs that they want. In the logical point of view, gender discrimination doesn’t make much sense, since it is the employer who’s got the final word to determine who will be accepted or not for any given job (Cohn 2000).

Managerial occupations in the hospitality industry remain strongly gender segregated (Women and Men in Britain: Management 2002).Several reasons on why women acquire a little privilege to held a managerial position in the hospitality sector in UK is the historic views of gender. Historically, women are deemed to be the weaker sex. However, we cannot deny the fact on the rationale behind this belief. Below are several other reasons on why women senior managers are lesser in number in the UK’s specified industry.

Physical limitations, Management and Leadership

Physically, women are weaker. This is a universal known truth. Thus, women are perceived to be more likely easy to get tired. The tedious responsibility of the manager requires effective stress coping mechanisms. The extent of limitation of women in the workplace is manifested in their stress coping mechanisms. Thus, stress is within their personal capacity to manage. Otherwise prolonged job stress can lead to their burn-out or breakdown, which is more likely to affect women than men (Buick and Thomas 2001). Again, with the biological foundation and nature of women, this limits their capacity to climb a higher position.

On the other hand, the quality of leadership and management style are another issue. According to Fields (2002), there are qualities that the people wanted the leaders to have. And in these qualities, the particular leader should promote it and demonstrate in any time of difficulty. Tesone (2000) also stated that during the challenging times, individuals engage in mutual communication processes that avoid the structure to achieve the performance levels. Granted that a manager is a man or woman, management styles may be gendered. This is highly descriptive in the study conducted by Rutherford (2001). It is a study of male and female managers in an airline that confirms the differences in their approach to management. Results found out that men tend to follow a more command and control style with a distancing of personal self, while women are more communicative and caring, with more emphasis on people skills such as listening rather than mere performance of the task. Women treated more leniently than men, thus raising the possibility of discrimination (Rollinson et al. 1996). Because of the traditional characteristics of woman, their attributes as leaders are softer than men. The increasing reliance on attitudinal characteristics intensifies the problem of management and leadership because attitude, behaviour and personality tend to interact with gender and racial stereotypes and lead to discrimination in selection. Emotional labour is not gender neutral as work containing significant amounts is dominated by women (Taylor & Tyler 2000). For example, working as cabin crew is defined as women's work by employers, customers and employees. Men are supervisors and managers in general.

Workplace Politics

Women are less likely to acquire the political competency necessary to gain power in certain organizations. Most organizations are male dominated and biased in favor of men serving in such positions as Vice-Presidents, Chairman of Boards, Engineers, Contractors, Technicians, CEOs and Presidents. Most women do not believe they should participate in political controversy within the organization as long as they can show competence, loyalty and devotion to their work. Rendell (2000) points out, “Where women are power is not.” This type of discrimination seems to be a result of women refusing to engage in office politics and a dislike for political activity. Today, even in the 21st century women are still under represented in positions of authority within the public world of work.

Lack of opportunities

With the preconceived thoughts on women in general, the opportunities in the professional field is also definite. Women are for soft jobs while men are for hard jobs. In the competitive world, industries require aggressive, multi-talented, and effective managers. These views are often affective in the overall image as well as performance of their roles and responsibilities. In connection, the following reason is also considered.

Traditional gender role of women (e.g. wife and family-rearing)

The traditional role of women in the society as mother and wife is another situational reason on why they consists lower senior managerial positions. In some instances, their familial responsibilities serve as limitation for their professional growth. Generally, because women are expected to be full-time mother and wife, they are persuaded to work in part-time jobs due to some other responsibilities such as domestic and the like (Hunter et al. 1993). Hakim (1995) asserts that part-time works are expected to be chosen voluntarily by a significant number of women because they have other responsibilities in their life. This is another theory on why women held senior managerial position in an organization. However, some experts challenge and argue Hakim’s view. Women’s choice, according to them is constrained by the lack of alternatives and weak bargaining position because they have to accommodate domestic responsibility (Ginn et al. 1996).

Hakim’s belief is considered as one of the main reasons on why few women are actively engaged in the higher stages of management. But the circumstances provided by the traditional roles of women that are preexisting in the society also support the extreme opposite side. In hospitality management, women are relatively better in terms of management regardless of the roles they play particularly in the personnel and employee relations. But still, it seems easy for women to gain employment at the lower to middle levels of the organization but very difficult for them to reach upper and senior management positions.

The Balance of Work and Life and HRM

Romaine (1999) argues that our biological sex is determined at birth by factors beyond our control, yet being born male or female is probably the most important feature of our lives. In the hospitality industry where women play a significant role, their contributions are highly commendable. Besides, the idea behind hospitality jobs is care and service that every woman is capable of doing in a better way possible as to compare with the man population. Perfect examples are flight attendants in airlines, hotel staffs, travel consultants and agents, and other positions that require a womanly touch.

But then again, women must keep a balance in their work and life as a whole. With the responsibilities of a manager – middle or senior in nature, a woman manager must deal with the daily pressures and demands of the work. The extent of woman’s work-life balance programs depends on the personal and professional limitations. Today, there are more male managers in the hospitality industry of UK but it is ironic to note that there are more female who possess a higher degree of qualification in terms of academic pursuit and abilities but only held a lower position in the organization. More and more females are taking up MBA degree than males. However, as stated previously and because of the traditional roles in the family and domestic life, women managerial positions are limited.

When tackling the subject of work and life in the professional basis, there is a question that rises on whether women should abandon their traditional roles to pursue their self-fulfillment in terms of career. Traditionally, women should devote her time, energy, and attention, in other words, herself to her family. Men should be considered the head of the family and have the authority to demand other family members. However, the role of women has moved to a higher level. Women are able to gain an education and work like men. There are some women who not only perform their duties in the house very well but they also perform excellently at work.

However, there is still inequality for women because men always prioritize their careers while women cannot do that. Their family should come first before their careers. Because of this, it is quite hard to totally abandon the traditional roles of women and pursue their self-fulfillment. The fight for equality is really dependent on whether a woman is aware of her own capabilities. Women should be able to built their confidence and be more independent. This way, the relationship between men and women will be more equal.

In relation to equal opportunity employment, the human resources of the organization must deal with the balance of work-life of women employees. Thus, the HR manager must study the potentialities and the intervening factors in considering a senior managerial position for a women candidate. S/he must keep in mind the traditional and societal roles of the woman and a person as a whole. Thus, equal opportunity policies are voluntary, and depend on a business case argument rather than being based on a social case. The HR manager must consider circumstances when women can break through the 'glass ceiling' and achieve senior management positions (Maxwell 1997; Knutson & Schmidgall 1999). An organization-based approach is no use to women in highly feminized employment who remain stuck to a 'sticky floor' because it does not lead to “a transformation in access to power and the nature of it” (Dickens 1994, p.15). Hence, the economic benefits of equal opportunities need to be articulated at a level beyond the organization, but may not produce desirable outcomes.

In connection, the role of HRM must emerge as the tool for the development of policies and practices equalize rather than challenge gender inequality. It must be noted that HRM’s role in the emergence of women managers is supported by important factors such as abilities, skills, and management functions present within the person.

To sum up, there are few numbers of women managers in UK’s hospitality industry due to some factors involve in the process – historical, traditional, societal, and even personal in nature. Regardless of other factors, the theoretical frameworks underlying the subject are dependent on the responsibility of every woman employee. Their efforts to reach the position that they deserve must be acknowledge by employers. They indeed possess a significant position in the corporate ladder. With this, men and women workers will definitely be equal.

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