Gender equality in academic tourism, hospitality, leisure and events conferences

Abstract

ABSTRACTPlanned events can be considered as texts, conveying and interpreting the social order of a community. Academic conferences and conventions also represent a community; they convey and interpret the academic community's social order. This paper turns the spotlight on planned events in tourism, hospitality, leisure and event studies and scrutinises gender equality at their academic conferences. This study analyses the field in 2017, through a critical examination of 53 such academic conferences around the globe. It finds gender inequality in two types of roles – Keynote Speakers and membership on Honorary Committees – where there is statistically significant under-representation of women. It also identifies areas of tension between some host association values/aims and conference aims/themes and actual gender representation in conference leadership roles, finding a gap between rhetoric and action. Finally, it discusses the implications of gender inequality on both women academics and knowledge production in these fields, and suggests avenues for future research.