Fear of abuse, stigma key reasons for few women in tourism industry

Thursday, 11 January 2018 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Shanika Sriyananda

Few women are working in the tourism industry due to the fear of abuse and stigma attached to the trade despite high growth prospects, a recent World Bank study has found.

The study, ‘Getting to Work - unlocking women’s potential in Sri Lanka’s labor force’, states that unlike the tea estate sector, where female representation is higher than average, the share of female employees is much lower than average in the tourism industry.

According to the study, the low female participation in the tourism industry is mainly due to women’s vulnerability to labour abuse, sexual abuse and trafficking.

The primary research for the study has found that women themselves, as well as their parents and husbands, fear for their safety in tourism and also over 85% of the female employees interviewed for the study cited marriage as the reason for women leaving the tourism industry.

“The industry will need to provide greater incentives to potential female employees to help overcome such stigma. Stigmatisation of tourism jobs for women may be one factor in the notable lack of female trainees in related job skills programs where such programs exist,” the report states.

A lack of technical education and vocational education and training for women has also caused a dearth of local skilled workers of the tourism industry, the study states.

The WB study recommends addressing women’s fear and stigma related to the industry by ensuring greater safety in tourism industry workplaces with a collective and sustained engagement between hotels, catering and tourism enterprises and their owners to agree on the uniform application of equal opportunity policies and practices.

“Gender-sensitivity training for all employees and management is needed to adopt this measure,” the study, which highlights the need for creating greater access to training in skills, reveals.

“If tourism is to absorb large numbers of female workers, as envisaged by national human resources strategies like Sri Lanka’s National Human Resources and Employment Policy, training programs linked to tourism jobs will need to be greatly expanded,” it notes.

The study states that women who are trapped in traditional gender roles like cooking and cleaning need to be provided with training in areas beyond these gender-stereotyped occupations, such as through work-based training programs in hotels.

Requiring quotas for women in training would promote incentives for enhanced hotel outreach to women, the study recommends.