Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
It is interesting that a new book,
Key Concepts in Tourist Studies
(Smith
et al.
, 2010), written
by three prominent women tourism researchers, does not include 'gender' among its 40 'key
concepts' and only refers to gender specifi cally in relation to sex tourism (denoted as a 'market
segment'), where its importance is deliberately downplayed in relation to the much greater
perceived importance of developed world dominance over the peoples of developing countries.
Similarly, Gibson's landmark article in
Progress in Human Geography
(2009) omits concerns
with gender from a review of tourism geographies, apart from a passing reference to female
insecurity of labour and a short discussion of the sexual 'encounters' of female tourists.
Feminist methodologies
Although there is reference in many studies concerning gender and tourism to statistical data
(for example, concerning differential employment and wage structures), most contemporary
research in the fi eld is based on qualitative methods of data collection. This is no surprise
when one considers the importance of feminism, historically, in introducing to broad areas of
the social sciences an appreciation of the positionality of the researcher and the necessity to
use methods that produce insight and meaning, rather than quantitative categories. In order
to understand the situation of women and men as producers and/or consumers of tourism
products, research has mainly involved ethnographic studies, using in-depth interviewing,
biographical and memory work, focus groups, participant observations and/or the recording
of refl ective diaries and autoethnographical writing as suitable research instruments (Ateljevic
et al.
, 2007b). In addition, gendered tourism imagery has been studied through content
analysis of magazines and brochures, while narrative analysis has been used to understand
historical patterns of gendered travel.
Research on tourism and gender
Employment in tourism/tourism structures
As noted before, gender has very often not been considered specifi cally in tourism research,
but where this
has
happened it has largely been in terms of tourism employment, within the
context of development studies and often relating to the 'developing world' (Momsen and
Kinnaird, 1993; Sinclair, 1997; UN Commission on Sustainable Development, 1999). The
impacts of employment are clearly seen to be different for women and men, with women
generally occupying low-status, low-paid jobs (working in cafes, cleaning hotels, and pursuing
other occupations that accord with traditional female domestic roles), while men benefi t
more from greater tourism revenue and higher status positions within tourist industries (see,
for example, Muñoz-Bullón (2009) and Campos-Soria
et al.
(2009) for discussions of gendered
wage differentials within the Spanish tourism industry).
Many studies have
noted
differences in work patterns based on gender without seeking to
explain them overtly but, as Wall and Norris (2003: 250) remind us, 'there is little to be
gained from examining women's roles in economic production, without also considering their
defi nition according to the dominant religious and political traditions, and their place in the
household' and thus some writers have taken a more explanatory approach. Robson (2002),
for example, describes the ways in which souvenir handicraft production in Malta operates
along fi rmly gendered lines, with women creating hand-made lace and knitware items (seen
as complementing their domestic role) while men produce metalwork, woodwork and glass
souvenirs, which require technological input and production space outside the home.
