Occupational segregation within hotels sector: How to improve the perception in genders stereotypes represented in occupations and the unequal treatment in the workplace.
Author: Saisuda Liphan
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Abstract: Occupation segregation commonly stratification by gender has been declining at a diminishing pace but it can still be seen in the present day within the hotel sector, where women and men are places into distinctly different occupations due to the labour market preferences or how society normative beliefs some profession role is meant for one gender over another. This issue can impact on the result of the wage gap and to further investigate why the majority of higher status is mostly dominated by men and only a few women in charge of the leading roles.
Key Words: Occupation segregation, horizontally and vertically occupations, gender discrimination.
The occupational segregation related to gender-based discrimination within the hospitality industry is not a new phenomenon, despite the changes of employment between men and women that have improved over the years but there are some roles in hotels sectors still have this ongoing issue. This critical issue will explore in different factors that related to the reason why occupation have been segregated in the first place and how social stereotyping can influence the division of labour that majority of people views what roles was more suitable for men or women to work.
The research will also examine between ‘horizontally’ segregation from across occupations at the same level that has the uneven distribution of men and women into different functional areas, and the ‘vertically’ segregation in a different hierarchy of occupations where the clustering of men at the top and women at the bottom. Many pieces of researches were the found similar outcome of the results showing jobs with a lower level and less responsibility tend to dominate by women such as caring and customer service, with a very little number of female leaders or management when comparedg to men (Garcia et al, 2011).
Furthermore, the occupational segregation tends to increase by the age of workers for example, majority of young employees from the age of twenties will have a similar percentage of employment rate, as most of them would complete with their higher education and ready to find stable work. However, as the age increase, the results were presented that men are consistently had a higher employment rate, due to some women choosing to start a family and decided not to work for some period of time once their children are older, which is a reason why there are gaps of unbalance number in higher skill level jobs between men and women (Jenkins, 2013).
The most female often faces the dilemma of having to make a choice between family and career. This type of behaviour from social perceptions towards gender ideology was influences by many years ago where men represent as strong character to be in charge of the head of the household and the rest of domestic duties are taken care by women. Majority of women with younger children are most likely to work in part-time in order to delicate the balance between time spent with family, child care and work-related issues. The results of this can led to pay gap for women to be lower than men because most of the part-time tend to be lower-paid and the employees typically do not receive paid vacation like a full-time (Foley and Francis, 2020).
Additionally, one of the issues that women challenge with is returning to work after their maternity leave as the hotel is a labour-intensive sector that operates in a fast-paced environment, where the position can be competitive and easily be replaced by the new staff member. Many employers believe by leaving work for too long may result in the lack of work experience, which in this case the previous workers can be replaced with new staff who can work longer hours. This topic required further research to ascertain why women are taking jobs in hotels with substantially lower pay rates, and men in general are in the better-paid areas. One of the suggestions which belief could help reducing this critical issue in the workplace is for the hotel employers to support and cooperate with their employees. This could be done by using a variety of policies and programs such as facilitating policies to reduce the burden on women of family responsibilities; consciousness-raising programmes to remove gender stereotypes and prejudices; educational policies to bring about greater gender equality in schooling and training, especially with respect to opening access to non-traditional occupations for both men and women; and equal opportunity and affirmative action policies, especially those opening up new opportunities for men and women.
Reference
Foley, D.N. and Francis, B (2020) Women and the Economy. UK: House of Commons Library. Available from file:///C:/Users/annli/Downloads/SN06838.pdf [accessed 9 May 2020].
Garcia, M.A.R, Mera, A.M. and Soria, J.A.C., (2011) Patterns of occupational segregation by gender in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30 (1) 91-102. Elsevier Ltd. Available from https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S0278431910000836?via%3Dihub [accessed 2 May 2020].
Jenkins, J. (2013) Women in the labour market: 2013. UK: Office for National Statistics. Available from https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/womeninthelabourmarket/2013-09-25 [accessed 2 May 2020].
Key Words: Occupation segregation, horizontally and vertically occupations, gender discrimination.
The occupational segregation related to gender-based discrimination within the hospitality industry is not a new phenomenon, despite the changes of employment between men and women that have improved over the years but there are some roles in hotels sectors still have this ongoing issue. This critical issue will explore in different factors that related to the reason why occupation have been segregated in the first place and how social stereotyping can influence the division of labour that majority of people views what roles was more suitable for men or women to work.
The research will also examine between ‘horizontally’ segregation from across occupations at the same level that has the uneven distribution of men and women into different functional areas, and the ‘vertically’ segregation in a different hierarchy of occupations where the clustering of men at the top and women at the bottom. Many pieces of researches were the found similar outcome of the results showing jobs with a lower level and less responsibility tend to dominate by women such as caring and customer service, with a very little number of female leaders or management when comparedg to men (Garcia et al, 2011).
Furthermore, the occupational segregation tends to increase by the age of workers for example, majority of young employees from the age of twenties will have a similar percentage of employment rate, as most of them would complete with their higher education and ready to find stable work. However, as the age increase, the results were presented that men are consistently had a higher employment rate, due to some women choosing to start a family and decided not to work for some period of time once their children are older, which is a reason why there are gaps of unbalance number in higher skill level jobs between men and women (Jenkins, 2013).
The most female often faces the dilemma of having to make a choice between family and career. This type of behaviour from social perceptions towards gender ideology was influences by many years ago where men represent as strong character to be in charge of the head of the household and the rest of domestic duties are taken care by women. Majority of women with younger children are most likely to work in part-time in order to delicate the balance between time spent with family, child care and work-related issues. The results of this can led to pay gap for women to be lower than men because most of the part-time tend to be lower-paid and the employees typically do not receive paid vacation like a full-time (Foley and Francis, 2020).
Additionally, one of the issues that women challenge with is returning to work after their maternity leave as the hotel is a labour-intensive sector that operates in a fast-paced environment, where the position can be competitive and easily be replaced by the new staff member. Many employers believe by leaving work for too long may result in the lack of work experience, which in this case the previous workers can be replaced with new staff who can work longer hours. This topic required further research to ascertain why women are taking jobs in hotels with substantially lower pay rates, and men in general are in the better-paid areas. One of the suggestions which belief could help reducing this critical issue in the workplace is for the hotel employers to support and cooperate with their employees. This could be done by using a variety of policies and programs such as facilitating policies to reduce the burden on women of family responsibilities; consciousness-raising programmes to remove gender stereotypes and prejudices; educational policies to bring about greater gender equality in schooling and training, especially with respect to opening access to non-traditional occupations for both men and women; and equal opportunity and affirmative action policies, especially those opening up new opportunities for men and women.
Reference
Foley, D.N. and Francis, B (2020) Women and the Economy. UK: House of Commons Library. Available from file:///C:/Users/annli/Downloads/SN06838.pdf [accessed 9 May 2020].
Garcia, M.A.R, Mera, A.M. and Soria, J.A.C., (2011) Patterns of occupational segregation by gender in the hospitality industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 30 (1) 91-102. Elsevier Ltd. Available from https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.library.lincoln.ac.uk/science/article/pii/S0278431910000836?via%3Dihub [accessed 2 May 2020].
Jenkins, J. (2013) Women in the labour market: 2013. UK: Office for National Statistics. Available from https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/womeninthelabourmarket/2013-09-25 [accessed 2 May 2020].