Gender isues in employment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gender isues in employment - Essay Example "It is a people business. Tourism is the largest employer of any industry in the world now; its growing by leaps and bounds. And tourism is the largest employer in San Francisco. This gives women a chance to hone their management skills." (Armstrong, 2006) Employment opportunities in the hospitality profession abound all over the world. In the majority of West European countries women predominate in the hotel staff but unfortunately, only a small number of women are in management positions. Purcell postulates that there are three mutually-reinforcing but distinct elements which influence the allocation or denial of particular work to women: labour cost, sexuality and patriarchal prescription (Purcell, 1996) A study by Kattara in 2005 on career challenges of female managers in Egyptian hotels found out that the majority of female managers were not in situations that would lead them to the positions of general managers. â€Å"The study detected several factors preventing female managers from reaching the glass ceiling. The stepwise multiple regression showed that 35.5 percent of the variance in the existence of challenges could be explained by four factors; gender discrimination, relationships at work, mentor support and lack of network access† (Kattara, 2005) In the hospitality sphere there also exists a strong gender-segregation in work. Burgess, in her research, claims that there exist considerable discrepancies between the career development and salaries of men and women in the hospitality industry. The most prestigious and, therefore, better-paid job positions are occupied by men (Burgess, 2003).. Female employees tend to work in housekeeping, the kitchen or in the food and beverage departments. While there tends to be an equal amount of men and women in front office, top managerial positions still tend to be held by men. There appears to be a constant conflict between mutually beneficial