Gender equity and executive management in tourism: Challenges in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region

Abstract

Tourism is a major employer of women. However, women experience gender discrimination with regard to attaining executive management positions. The paper reports on the study of gender and executive management in the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) countries. The aim of the study is to investigate the extent at which gender equity is being practiced in the SADC tourism sector. The study used a survey design and mixed methods for data collection and analysis. The findings showed that the majority of CEOs were male. The other finding was the need to facilitate the attainment of executive management positions by women.It was found that gender mainstreaming policies within SADC countries have not yet yielded positive results in the tourism sector.The study recommends that the region engender national tourism policies and implement national executive management training programmes targetted at female managers. Key words: Executive management, gender equity, tourism, gender mainstreaming, SADC.