The patriarchal stereotypical views of women in tourism employment and the barriers they face within the airline industry that has led to a lack of women in managerial positions.

Abstract: The airline industry currently employees few women in managerial positions and this lack of gender diversity is caused by various barriers at individual, societal, cultural, gender policy and occupational levels. Preventing women from being accepted as equals within the industry. This lack of progression to preclude segregation is apparent and should be addressed in academia in order to create an equal and unsegregated industry.

Key words: Aviation, Management, Barriers, Occupational segregation, Aesthetic labour, Emotional labour, Inequality, Patriarchal society, Gender

The tourism industry is one of the largest employment industries in the world and compared to the general economy employs 4% more women worldwide. Yet, many of these women exist in the lower-paid, lower-level jobs. This is arguably because of the unsociable hours alongside family responsibilities. However, several barriers exist that prevent women from accessing managerial positions, disproportionately so within the airline industry. Including individual, societal, cultural, gender policy and occupational segregation. When these barriers are researched further the gender pay gap, fear of sexual harassment, gender inequalities, occupational segregation and the assumptions made about what ‘women’s work’ consists of are further highlighted (Baom, 2012). With many gaps in the research regarding why women are unable to take upon the same managerial roles as men, and why this gender imbalance exists.

Historically a woman’s ‘role’ was to reside within the domestic sphere of the household. While men would partake in breadwinner, money earning roles (Becker, 1999). These patriarchal societal stereotypes often labelled men as having higher power and leadership with the addition of social privilege. While these stereotypical patriarchal beliefs have been eroded over time, these ideologies still exist in employment among other societal systems. Often roles are feminised labelling jobs that involve caring, nurturing responsibilities as ‘women’s work’. Intensified within the tourism industry through domestic work such as housekeeping and cabin crew responsibilities.

The aviation industry is arguably the most unequal when it comes to gender diversity. The tourism industry collectively employs more women, but these roles are disproportionate in those of managerial or pilot positions. Worldwide there are only 7,409 female pilots and cockpits are considered masculine spaces. Academics discuss how female pilots often address issues of negativity because of there gender. Some airlines over the years have identified the progression and need for change, through encouraging equality between the sexes. Yet despite this, managerial positions within aviation are predominantly male and only 3% of women are in CEO roles. Instead many of the women within this sector are employed as cabin crew.

Occupational gender segregation exists within this industry and is another barrier in preventing the equality of managerial positions (Baom, 2012). Occupational segregation is the unequal distribution of men and women across a variety of jobs and takes upon two forms, horizontal and vertical. Vertical segregation in aviation refers to the unequal amount of men in CEO roles and horizontal is the gender pay gap experienced across the lower-level jobs within the industry. Assumptions made about women often stem from societal, patriarchal and historical beliefs and are influenced through occupational segregation. Preventing women from being equal because gender roles are perpetrated through assumptions made about women’s ability to take on the same roles as men. Alluding to a barrier which prevents women from accessing managerial positions.

A role that was once viewed as stereotypically glamorous and romantic is the role of a cabin crew member. Cabin crew are expected to adhere to strict uniform requirements often adding a sexualised aspect to what is a serious, customer focused job. Aesthetic labour relates to the sexualisation and management of appearance (Mears, 2014). Furthermore, emotional labour is required in this form of employment. Emotional labour is altering one’s emotions in order to adjust to a customer needs despite often feeling the opposite. Both these forms of labour additionally create barriers for women when trying to break free from these patriarchal ‘women’s work’ beliefs that surround these roles. Additionally, cabin crew also suffer harsh sexual harassment from customers and colleagues. With many women in the industry identifying the lack of power and influence over these barriers and inequalities until they gain senior roles (Mears, 2014).

With some developments and changes being made such as alterations in the uniforms of British Airways cabin crew and the addition of schemes that encourage airlines to become more diverse. There is still more than can be done. Breaking down these pre-existing barriers could potentially be achieved through addressing the individual, cultural, societal, policy driven and occupational segregation's. With little research existing identifying any direct improvements and the barriers associated within the industry. Maybe addressing women in aviation within academia could assist towards equality across the sector and spearhead the way for the entire tourism industry. Encouraging, equality for women in management, removing barriers that lead to gender pay gap, sexual harassment and segregation. Overall, the aviation sector has a long way to go in making the necessary changes to ensure that more women are in managerial positions.

References:
Baom, T. (2012) Working in the skies – changing representations of gendered work in the airline industry 1930-2011. Tourism management, 33, 1185-1194.

Becker, M. (1999) Patriarchy and Inequality: Towards a Substantive Feminism. The University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1 (3) 21-88.

Mears, A. (2014) Aesthetic labour for the sociologies of work, gender, and beauty. Sociology compass, 8 (12) 1330-1343.

After finishing university my dream is to get a job in the aviation industry and it is interesting to see why I could struggle to have a managerial role in this industry.

The author talks about how the aviation industry is the largest employment industry. They also talk about how most women who are employed in this industry are in low level and low skilled jobs and this was shocking to see. The author talks about the stereotypes of men and that they have higher power and higher leadership levels. Linking in with the stereotype of women should be at home doing the housework and men should be the breadwinner and be at work earning money are still present in the 21st century. Another point that the author makes is that companies such as British Airways are making the industry more diverse and trying to combat some of these stereotypes.

Something new to add to the report would be that Ferla and Graham say that the tourism industry fails to attract females to the industry (Ferla and Graham, 2019). This could be an important point as to why many females cannot get a managerial job because they feel unwanted in their industry. Another point is that 40% of the European Aviation industry is made up of women (Harvey, Finniear and Greedharry, 2019). Statistics like this may link into the attractive of the industry which Ferla and Graham talk about. Finally, in a study undertaken by Davey and Davidson men said they feel uncomfortable when working with women for the first time (Davey and Davidson, 2010). It shows that the stereotypes which have been mentioned need to be changed both internally and externally. Not being wanted in their industry could one of the many factors which may make women not have a managerial role in the aviation industry.

Harvey, G., Finniear, J., and Greedharry, M. (2019) Women in aviation: A study of insecurity. Research in Transport Business and Management. 31. Available https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S2210539519300604 [Accessed 13th May 2020]

Ferla, M. and Graham, A (2019) Women slowing taking off: An investigation into female underrepresentation in commercial aviation. Research in Transport Business and Management. 31. Available from https://eds-a-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/eds/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=47349874-3d9d-4910-93e1-e2803adcc92e%40sessionmgr4008&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ%3d%3d [Accessed 13th May 2020]

Davey, C. and Davidson, M. (2010) The right of passage? The Experience of Female Pilots in Commercial Aviation. Feminism and Psychology. 10(2). Sage: London. Available from https://journals-sagepub-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1177/0959353500010002002 [Accessed 13th May 2020]

I conducted my commentary on this paper, as there is a relation between my own paper and this one. My topic was based on the idea of stress in the hospitality industry (particularly highlighting emotional labour), and this paper links it to the aviation industry. The author explains the barriers of why there is a lack of women in senior or traditional male roles, analysing the societies view on women and the wider industry of tourism. The author has gone into clear detail with figures showing how bad the situation is for women in this sector creating an understanding of why women are not accepted as equal to men in the industry.

Halleran (2019) covers this topic, however, is geographically specific to the United States of America. She explains, like the author, in the aviation industry 4.2% of pilots are women in the USA (Halleran, 2019). The reason for this is due to universities having a small number of women taking STEM degrees (which is needed for aviation). By using this in the discussion about barriers within the aviation industry, companies could explore this new angle. A suggestion of how to change this would be for airlines to offer scholarships for females to boost numbers in classes, and potentially boost numbers of female pilots in their staff.

As mentioned by the author emotional labour is part of the aviation industry, this is the same for the hospitality industry. The impacts of emotional labour and dissonance is explained by Kogovsek and Kogovsek (2014), with low self-esteem and depression frequently found. This could then show a possible link between a personal barrier for higher/management positions and emotional labour. The lack of self-esteem and negative thoughts could prevent women at cabin crew level striving for management positions.

The author has explained in detail about why women in the aviation industry are in this situation, and it would allow members of the industry to understand what is going on. The author does mention that British Airways have made changes, however with the information from Halleran (2019) there is a different angle where the aviation industry can begin to make the necessary change.

Halleran, M.S. (2019) Gender Balance in Aviation. Collegiate Aviation Review, 37 (1). Available from https://web-a-ebscohost-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=26938ee2-42e0-4611-8b7e-0f6168269a68%40sessionmgr4007 [accessed on 13 May 2020].

Kogovsek, M., and Kogovsek, M. (2014) Emotional Labour in the Hospitality Industry: Literature Review. Quaestus Multidisciplinary Research Journal, 1 (1) 115- 130.

This commentary has been constructed around this paper, due to it focusing around issues within my own paper. Women within the tourism and hospitality industries face subsequent barriers within employment in relation to working towards managerial positions. My own topic was around Migrant Workers within the Hospitality Industry, mainly focusing on female workers and how mistreatment from managerial teams within a business can have a detrimental effect on their mindset by facing confidence issues when aspiring to gain a higher paid position. The author also explains this very well, linking it to why there is a subsequent lack of female workers within managerial positions in the industry, analysing very well why the situation shrouds the industry.

The tourism industry is a very easy industry to gain employment in at a low level but if workers want to develop their skills to get into a better paid role such as managers, barriers can be faced among female workers. Females face stereotypically assumptions made by their male counterparts due to factors within their personal lives such as marriage or childcare that they think can ‘disrupt’ a female worker in a managerial position, in this instance a pilot. The subject of female pilots has been discussed academically throughout many different journals as the matter is to be found very interesting among academics. McCarthy, Budd and Ison (2015) have found the matter to be of vital importance, demonstrating that efforts are being made across airline companies to improve gender balances of their flight crew, but women’s profession remains at a low level. They also highlight that of the 130,000 airline pilots worldwide, only 4,000 (3%) are female and only 450 hold the command of captain (McCarthy et al, 2015, 1). The author has also demonstrated these figures well, encompassing the fact that women are poorly represented.

An issue that females face if wanting to become the role of a pilot is the fact that a small amount of universities offer STEM degrees which is what is needed for females to progress into a pilot role. The author also stated emotional labour is part of the aviation industry which is the same for the hospitality industry. Many workers are also shrouded with the misrepresentation they face within the hospitality industry of being in low paid roles which the author also states.

McCarthy, F., Budd, L., Ison, S. (2015) Gender on the flight deck: Experiences of women commercial airline pilots in the UK. Journal of Air Transport Management, 47 32-38. Available from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0969699715000447 [accessed 14 May 2020].