Gendering knowledge in tourism: gender (in)equality initiatives in the tourism academy

Abstract

The tourism academy is a key site through which gender is produced, reproduced and, potentially, challenged. In this paper, we draw on Acker’s (1990) concept of gendered organisations to present a case study of a tourism department preparing to apply for an international gender equality charter-accreditation, Athena SWAN. Ketso was used as a method to try to stimulate active involvement of all staff members and breakdown traditional hierarchies within the team, and to encourage honest discussion about gender and inequality in this context. This was only partially successful, however, and we discuss how explicit focus on gender (in)equality through this process both enabled discussion of usually ignored topics and revealed entrenched gender power dynamics and structural and institutional barriers to reform. The paper illustrates both the possibilities of gender equality initiatives like Athena SWAN to highlight many of the gendered practices of tourism academia and the limitations they hold for overcoming deep-rooted gender inequality.

Keywords:

• Academia
• Athena SWAN
• gender equality
• Ketso
• tourism
• Sustainable Development Goals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Katherine Dashper

Katherine Dashper is Reader in the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality Management at Leeds Beckett University. She has published widely on gender, diversity and (in) equality in work, tourism and leisure. She is editor of six books, including the forthcoming volume Sport, gender and mega-events (Emerald, 2021). Kate's other key area of research focuses on human-animal interactions and relationships in tourism, events and sport. She has published her more-than-human research in numerous international journals, and is author of the research monograph Human-animal relationships in equestrian sport and leisure (Routledge, 2017).

Jane Turner

Jane Turner is an Online Learning Tutor in the School of Events, Tourism and Hospitality at Leeds Beckett University, UK. Her research interests include tourism education, responsible tourist behaviour and air travel. In 2012 Jane completed her PhD into the pre-trip decision making and airline choice of air travellers, with a focus upon the low-cost airline sector.

Yana Wengel

Yana Wengel is an associate professor at the Joint Tourism College HAICT of Hainan University in China. Yana takes a critical approach to tourism studies, and her interests include volunteer tourism, non-profit tourism, tourism in developing economies, creative methodologies and mountain tourism. Her doctoral research examined the social construction of host-guest experiences in World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms programme (WWOOFing). She has an interest in creative qualitative tools for data collection and stakeholder engagement. Yana is a co-founder of the LEGO^® SERIOUS PLAY^® research community.