Gender Bias in Hospitality Service - Essay Example

Gender bias in hospitality service Introduction The issue of whether the United s faces gender bias in hospitality industry, and investigating the extent, causes, and consequences of gender bias, is important because of the rising demand for work force in hospitality industry. “The U.S. hospitality and leisure industry is expected to grow by 2.1 million jobs between 2002 and 2012 (17.8 per cent) which represents a faster increase than the 14.8 per cent job growth for all industries.” (US hospitality industry needs workers. 2006). Women accounted for more than half of all hospitality services in less than a generation and it shows disproportionate increase in female workers. It is believed that women are more likely to have social skills than men in activities that require emotional labor, like listening to complaints and attending guests. Joan Williams in her book “Unbending Gender” observes that “women are held to a different standard at work and tend to be labeled as strident or abrasive when acting as leaders”. She said “women have to choose between being liked but not respected, or respected but not liked.” (Belkin 2007). In the 1970s, for the first time employers faced federal government pressure to hire and promote women into professional and managerial jobs. With industrialization women of different social strata began to leave the private sphere of their homes to participate in the public sphere of paid employment. Now, women are moving beyond the traditional female occupations and into careers formerly dominated by men and work full time and year-round. Looking at the generic patterns and practices within organizations that lead to the empowerment of women it is not easy to uncover related set of discriminatory organizational circumstances and forewarn most ambitious and even the bravest women to be geared up to face the consequences. Glick at Lawrence University, Appleton enlightens us through his words “some of what we are learning is directly helpful, and tells women that they are acting in ways they might not even be aware of, and that is harming them and they can change” but have no way to “fight back.” He concludes that “the problem is with the perception “and not with the woman and “it is not the problem of an individual, it’s a problem of a corporation.” (Belkin 2007) Exploring the substantial research on feminism and involving men and women who have experience in hospitality service, with the realization that they are part of an occupation that seek accommodation, negotiation, and resolution of conflict between organizations and the groups on which their employers depend, it will be possible to bring change within organizations and themselves. Astute Research Question: Is hospitality service more of a bed of feathers for women than are other fields? What solutions do the literature, the surveys, and the group and individual interviews suggest for overcoming gender bias? Research purpose Any subject pertaining to women’s issue and unladylike behavior is often equated with feminism. Of the myriad concerns surrounding feminization of hospitality service this research suggest a comparative study that goes beyond salary to include a consideration of women’s ascension to the managerial rank and resolving the problem of sexual discrimination in hospitality service. “U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that women employment-population ratio (20 years and over) is 58 and unemployment rates for adult women is 4.1 per cent. Within leisure and hospitality, employment in food services and drinking places continued to trend up in (October 37,000). This industry has added 365,000 jobs over the year.” (U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. 2007) Sociologists have conducted numerous studies of gender in different occupational clusters, and trying to read, reflect on, and then synthesize all these scholarly opinions are beyond the scope of this research. Combining academic literature, research articles, and books in the field of feminism will help in answering the key question: How do U.S. women in hospitality service fare in comparison to their sisters in other occupations? Thus, with the help of relevant scientific studies and anecdotal evidence a brief thoughtful commentary of women who work in this service sector could be evolved. Research conducted: Understanding the issue. The focus of this paper is to explore the gender bias experienced by women engaged in hospitality service. Services require people, but, according to the International Society of Hospitality Consultants, the shrinking labor force is the number one challenge facing the global hospitality industry (Belkin 2007). Tourism and hospitality service comprise a mixture of firms and employees that provide a memorable and pleasurable experience for both domestic and international visitors. In the absence of skilled employees one of the top export product services will have adverse consequences. There is an influx of women in hospitality service, as compared to traditional female fields such as nursing and teaching, and sudden shift to a female dominance faces the realities of dwindling salary, status, and career advancement. Women are ‘better buy’ because there is an over representation of women with hospitality skills. These women provide a cheaper supply than men and create the surplus of women in entry level hospitality services. This aggravates their subsequent segregation into technical positions, whereas men are more likely to advance into higher paying managerial jobs. Banks, hospitals and educational institutions are female intensive industries and are very receptive to employing women. These fields are also very attractive to women as they offer better pay packages, career adaptability, flexible hours and fewer sexist barriers than the corporate world. With office automation and introduction of ATM, as well as flip card services employment opportunity in the banking and retail sector are diminishing. Gender bias in hospitality industry Hospitality service calls for working with diverse personalities at odd hours as well as maintaining courteous countenance even in adverse circumstances. The job responsibility may vary from front door and reservation desk duties, dining room organization, service staff scheduling, adhering traffic flow guidelines, following sanitary rules, and housekeeping to entertaining the guests and bartending. Room Attendants working within the hotel guest room space impact on the hospitality impression management performed at the front-of-house and back-of-house boundary. The room attendants negotiate through objects such as the guest room and articles belonging to the guest and aspects of self such as impression management, safety, socializing and self responsibility for room checking. Each staff member should work a balanced amount of shifts throughout the week. If the schedule maker is burning out staff members within extra shifts or scheduling too many staff members to work only one of two shifts it will subtract from customer service. Any unexpected overture from the guests or even colleagues, on a female staff after a tedious duty, will put psychological pressure and hamper performance. It should be responsibility of employers and colleagues, irrespective of gender difference, to safeguard decorum of the institution. Feminism and gender bias Liberal feminists, according to Steeves, “believe in inequity is simply a matter of irrational prejudice than be solved through rational argument and the radical feminists agree that women’s oppression is widespread and that the problem is rooted too deeply to be removed by either individual action or social change.” (Grunig et al. 1991). “Catalyst research, an organization that studies women in the workplace, in its report “Damned if you Do, Doomed if you Don’t, which surveyed 1,231 senior executives from the United States and Europe found that women who act in ways that are consistent with gender stereotypes defined as focusing “on work relationships” are expressing “concern for other people’s perspectives are considered less competent. But if they act in a way that are seen as more “male” like “act assertively, focus on work task, display ambition” they are seen as “too tough” and “unfeminine” Even though women have found opportunity, frustration, discouragement, and success in their profession, many a multitude of women who underwent trials and triumphs work without fanfare. Generally women themselves do not admit they are feminists, though they plan on a career and equal pay for doing equal work, as well as marriage and expect her husband to do his share of household chores. If women perceive a relationship between unequal treatment in the work place and unladylike behavior in society, they may subconsciously adopt a set of assumptions, culturally learned, about the role and value of women in our society. According to our society men hold the more highly valued attributes of aggressiveness, competitiveness, and rationality in thought and women are biologically emotional, care giving, and cooperative in their behavior. Feminism and feminist theory value the feminine and the characteristics socially ascribed to women rather than associating women’s empowerment with unladylike behavior. Power to negotiate and get equal pay The first mention of pay disparity shall be noticed in the book of Leviticus (27:3-4) where “God told Moses that the work of women was worth three-fifths the pay of men. Victoria Brescoll finds that “while men gain stature and clout by expressing anger, women who express it are seen as being out of control, and lose stature.” Linda C. Babcock at Carnegie Mellon University concluded, through a novel experiment Boggle game involving men and women, that women are “poor at negotiating their salaries and raises.” Salary disparity can be attributed to gender bias and a statistically significant degree of salary disparity between men and women appears after the fifth year at work. Assumption that women have lower career aspirations than men is unjustified and there is need to cover the issues of hiring, training, promotion, sexual harassment, breadth of its role, and work-place restrictions and gender challenge to the field of hospitality service. Conclusion The responsibility of change is on the individual through finding his or her way to the strategies, skills, and knowledge needed to succeed. It is stated by Larissa A Grunig that “old habits die hard. Stereotypes persist. Family obligations overwhelm women. Women themselves doubt their own and their sisters’ worth. Socialization undoes the best efforts of enlightened parents of both sexes. Role models for women are few and mentors overworked. Powerlessness begets powerlessness.” (Grunig et al. 1991). Conclusions be drawn by comparison in situation for women in technical service and those in management domain, and determine how women in hospitality service are achieving and getting rewarded for their contributions to the work force. Works cited Belkin, Lisa. The feminine critique. The New York Times. 2007. 11 Nov. 2007 . U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics. The Employment situation. BLS. Household Data Table A-1. Washington. 2007. 11 Nov. 2007 . Grunig, Larissa A et al. Women in public relations. How gender influences practice. 1991. 2007. 11 Nov. 2007 . US hospitality industry needs workers. Workpermit.com. Global. 2006. 11 Nov. 2007 . Read More