Abstract
Women are historically under-represented in senior management positions in almost all industries. Despite the UK hospitality industry being a major employer of women, there is a clear lack of women in management positions. This research aims to gain insight into the factors enabling women to access senior positions in the UK hospitality industry. Using the gendered organizations perspective, the study analyses female managers’ perceptions about their career advancement within this sector. It identifies key enablers and strategies to facilitate women’s career advancement. The findings reveal that despite improvements in career opportunities for women within the UK hospitality organizations, there is still a long way to go in terms of employment policies and practices that enable women’s career progression, which includes family-friendly practices; proactive and transparent gender equality measures; support networks and mentors; and personal development plan.
Highlights
This study considers enabling factors for women’s career advancement in the UK hospitality industry
As a major tourist destination and culturally varied megacity, London’s hospitality sector is diverse, comprising 64 per cent migrant workers (People 1st, 2017b) and women represent more than half of all applicants for hospitality jobs (Riley, 2019)
The themes to be covered in the interviews were determined after mapping key literature surrounding the main topic of the study (Wengraf, 2001)
Summary
This study considers enabling factors for women’s career advancement in the UK hospitality industry. Despite recent initiatives such as the mandatory gender pay gap reporting, gender discrimination persists in the UK (PwC, 2019). As a major tourist destination and culturally varied megacity, London’s hospitality sector is diverse, comprising 64 per cent migrant workers (People 1st, 2017b) and women represent more than half of all applicants for hospitality jobs (Riley, 2019). Despite implementing several measures such as flexible working hours, familyfriendly policies and gender awareness training, only 11 per cent hold a senior managerial position (People 1st, 2017a) and women are paid 3.45 per cent less than men in a majority of the large hospitality businesses (The Caterer, 2019)
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