Gender Discrimination in Wildlife Tourism Services in Buea, Southwest Region, Cameroon

Abstract

In wildlife tourism industry w o m en a r e b ei n g a c c ep ted on the surface as p a r t o f t h e w ork- f or c e , b u t t h e i r r e c e p ti o n i n t o s e n i o r m a n a g e m e n t l e v el is s t i f led d u e to su b tle f o r m s o f d i s c r i m i n a ti o n t h at pr es e n t t h e ms e l v es i n c o m p e ns ati o n , tra i n i n g a n d s o cializ a ti o n n e t w ork s . However, the expansion of wildlife tourism industry needs the proper integration and involvement of women. The main objective of this study was to explore the discrimination of women working in wildlife tourism industry in Buea. A total of two hundred and fifty questionnaires were administered to a randomly selected population of women working in wildlife tourism industry in Buea. The results have shown a significant association between tourism service and the frequent bullying of female workers (X 2 = 23.822 df=3, P<0.05). The survey also revealed a significant relationship between gender discrimination and reasons for low women employment (X 2 = 23.867 df=6, P<0.05). Moreso, a significant association was shown between challenges faced by women and the reasons for low women employment (X 2 = 11.429 df=6, P<0.05). A respondent score of 66.93%, 21.91%, and 11.16% was recorded on the lack of physical ability, women marginalization, and poor training respectively as key reasons for low employment rate for women in the tourism industry in Buea. Inaddition, the study has recorded a respondent score of 33.86%, 32.67%, 19.12%, and 14.34% on communication, hotel management, transportation, and department of tourism respectively on the female work-force in this industry. In Cameroon, the propor ti o n o f w o m e n r e a c h i n g t o p m a n a g e m e n t po s itio n s in wildlife tourism industry h as r e m a i n ed r e l at i v e l y insignificant due to t h e e x i s t e n ce o f d i s c r i m i n at o r y b a rr ie r s.