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ABSTRACT
While gender equality and empowerment are core components of sustainable tourism, most of the literature has approached the concepts from qualitative perspectives, thus limiting the ability to empirically test for empowerment discrepancies between men and women. With this gap in mind, this study sought to test the widely held notion that empowerment discrepancies exist between men and women in tourism development. Discrepancies in psychological, social and political empowerment were tested for using the 12-item Resident Empowerment through Tourism Scale (RETS). The RETS was administered across five sample populations, with results revealing that gender discrepancies were present, but surprisingly, not in the direction suggested in previous literature. In all three US samples, there was evidence that women were more likely to perceive themselves being empowered than men. The results from the two Japanese samples did not find any significant differences, which is of interest because Japan is traditionally seen a very patriarchal society. Applications of the RETS can be paired with qualitative research to better understand empowerment success stories and then to apply these best practices to other destinations where empowerment discrepancies are present. Future applications of the RETS are suggested to help initiate “gender mainstreaming” within the sustainable tourism literature.
性别和增权：使用居民旅游增权量表评估差异
本文试图测试被可持续旅游性别平等和增权的多数定性研究限制的实证检验性别间增权差异的概念。使用12项居民旅游增权量表于5个样本群体间测试心理、社会和政治增权的差异，结果显示在非文献建议的方向存在性别差异：三个美国样本均有证据表明女性比男性更有可能认为自己被增权，而两个日本样本中没有显著不同。量表应用可配以定性研究为更好的了解成功案列，并实践于有差异的目的地，而未来可帮助在可持续旅游研究中将性别主流化。
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. Economic and environmental empowerment were not included in the study because neither had been developed into quantitative scales at the time of data collection.
2. Boley et al. (Citation2015) adapted the political empowerment dimension of the RETS to a Japanese context by deleting the item pertaining to voting and changing the second item pertaining to having “access” to read “I feel like I have the opportunity to participate in the tourism planning process in Oizumi.” Construct validity of the revised scale has been already confirmed by Boley et al., (Citation2015).
3. Each of the five CFAs had a different number of error terms identified using LM and successful removed using Wald tests. Floyd County had 10 (9 error covariances/1 cross-loader), Botetourt Count had 9 (7 error covariances/2 cross-loaders), Franklin County had 11 (9 error covariances/2 cross-loaders), and the Brazilian and Japanese samples each had 14 (10 error covariances and 4 cross-loading items).
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Notes on contributors
B. Bynum Boley
B. Bynum Boley is an assistant professor of natural resources recreation and tourism within the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. His research interests largely focus on sustainable tourism with a specific interest in the unique natural and cultural resources of tourism destinations.
Emily Ayscue
Emily Ayscue is a PhD student studying natural resources, recreation and tourism within the Warnell School of Forestry as well as the Integrative Conservation PhD program at the University of Georgia. Her research interests include sustainable coastal development and tourism development policy and management.
Naho Maruyama
Naho Maruyama is an assistant professor in regional and tourism policy at Takasaki City University of Economics, Japan. Her research interest includes tourism and globalization, tourism and ethnic minorities, residents' perception to ethnic tourism, and anthropology of tourism. Her current research focuses on residents’ attitudes toward tourism in Korean and Brazilian neighborhoods throughout Japan.
Kyle M. Woosnam
Kyle M. Woosnam is an associate professor in recreation, park and tourism sciences at Texas A&M University, USA. His research interests concern social–cultural and economic impacts of tourism, resident--tourist interactions within tourist destinations, and sustainable tourism development and planning.