What is the gender gap about the executives among the people in the field of tourism between France and England?

What is the gender gap about the executives among the people in the field of tourism between France and England?

Introduction

            Gender gap may refer to employees’ number gap – the difference existing between the numbers of male and female workers in a profession – or the income disparity by gender, which is gender pay gap (Skalpe 2007). Roughly sixty-three percent of new graduates in Europe are female, although their academic successes are not often mirrored in their career path, be it in the labor market or in politics. In Europe’s FTSE 150 companies, female representation is around 5.7% of the executive directors, and on average, England’s FTSE 100 firms only have 17.3% representation of women on the executive (McCann & Minter 2013). Tourism plays a substantial role regarding the economic growth of any country as well as to the progress of modern societies. As such, industrialized European countries such as England and France capitalize on tourism not just to make money, but also to create and enhance development for their selves. However, the existence of gender gap in the executive board within the tourism industry is still a major issue in these countries. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the gender gap regarding executives in the field of tourism between France and England.

The gender gap among the executive members in the field of tourism between France and England

            France is presently one of the most significant nations globally not just because of its thriving economy and a fascinating history, but also because it is a very important country with regard to tourism considering that Paris, its capital, is the most visited city worldwide. Major attractions include Eiffel Tower, Sacre Coeur, and prehistoric caves of the Dordigne and the Gothic cathedrals of Northern France (Kulich et al. 2009). Apart from these attractions, business tourism is also a vital area of the country’s tourism sector. Business tourism refers to the organization of all events which are funded by companies, for instance business trips for company employees, and is a major driving force for the country’s economy. Companies could organize a conference by the beach, a meeting near a golf course, a trade show in a historic monument, a seminar at the foot of the ski slopes or an evening at a prestigious night club for things such as corporate training, motivation or team-building exercises. France receives approximately 80 million tourists annually (Kulich et al. 2009). In spite of this flourishing French tourism sector, the executive boards of most firms within this sector are composed largely of men, whose earnings are much higher compared to their female counterparts in similar positions. This gender gap is notable.

In England, tourism is one of the largest industries worth approximately £100 billion, employing over 1.6 million people in areas such as pubs, travel agencies, hotels, museums and restaurants. Presently, roughly 25 million people visit England each year from all over the globe and most of these tourists start from London, and some never go out of London (Skalpe 2007). A number of reasons make people visit England. There are those who return to discover their family roots which originated from this country, some arrive to see the broad range of historical buildings, to sample the country’s traditions and heritage or to experience England’s countryside life. Other significant attractions are: the wonderful Dorset coast, the beautiful university cities of Cambridge and Oxford, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge (Skalpe 2007). Despite the flourishing tourism industry in England, gender gap is also of note here just as it is in France.

Barnet-Verzat (2007) pointed out that in France, women representation of the professional, management and related occupations stands at 47.2% and yet they represent only 26.1% of executive board members within the country’s tourism industry. In comparison to England, women in England represent roughly 52.4% of the professional, management and related occupations and they represent approximately 31.5% of the executive board members within the tourism industry. Although significant disparities exist with regard to women representation at the board of directors in both countries, these figures lucidly indicate that the gender gap regarding the number of men and women occupying executive positions of firms within the field of tourism is wider in France compared to England. Excepting the underrepresentation of the female gender at the very top, Elkinawy and Stater (2010) pointed out that experiential studies show that even for those that get to the top, significant gender dissimilarities still exist in earnings. Countries in Europe have enacted laws that mandate an equal treatment of men and women within the workplace, and this particularly means that both male and female workers must receive equivalent pay for equivalent work. Notwithstanding these efforts, a substantial gender wage gap still exists in France and England in a number of fields including tourism (Zahidi & Ibarra 2010).

Leading companies within the tourism sector in France and England are falling short in capitalizing on the talents of women in the labor force. While a number of companies in France and England are leaders with regard to integrating women, the idea that a vast majority of firms have become women-friendly or have attained gender-balance is still a myth (Ragins 2005). The gender gap among executive directors has widened in English companies, and firms within the tourism sector are no exception. McCann and Minter (2013) pointed out that the number of women who are appointed to the executive board of directors of FTSE 100 businesses has dropped. There is a noteworthy difference regarding the earnings of male and female senior executive members among firms within the field of tourism in both England and France. There is a substantial gender wage gap, and women on average earned a salary of £83,000 in 2011 whereas men earned on average £110,000, and this is not due to differences in level of education, age or experience. Additionally, men are more likely than women to be executives, whose salaries are higher. A substantial gender gap still exists among board executives in both England and France within the field of tourism (Perun 2012). According to Oaxaca and Ramson (2004), over the past two decades, the male/female ratio pay among executives in the field of tourism was equivalent to 22.2 percent for England and France.

Several causes have been cited for the existence of gender gap in France and England and a vast majority of them deal with factors that are gender specific (Meng 2004). Chief among is labor market segregation: Usually, women are inclined to work more in statuses and fields that do not pay well and a vast majority of girls continue to restrict their career choices to a narrow range of jobs in spite of their higher academic performance – horizontal segregation (Yurtoglu & Zulehner 2009). A large proportion of women work in the social services sector, most of them in the lower income segment such as being a social worker, saleswoman, elementary school teacher, cleaning lady, and nurse or child care giver/provider. This leads to the fact that women are highly under-represented in the tourism industry, and this under-representation plays a major role with regard to the existing gender gap with the field of tourism in both France and England. The job groups where women are significantly represented typically offer shoddier career opportunities and lesser pay when compared to the jobs dominated by men. The second cause of the gender gap in the field of tourism in both France and England is differences in productivity between women and men – This commonly arises from dissimilarities in training or education, selection of the sector/field or limited flexibility resulting from family commitments. When enrolling in college and in other institutions of higher learning, a vast majority of women in England do not choose courses that would lead them to job opportunities in the field of tourism, and this allows men to continue dominating job positions within the tourism sector, including executive positions.

Third is the tendency of male bosses to promote and favor male workers instead of women employees – Typically, the careers of women usually comes to an end upon reaching middle management positions. Generally it is women themselves who suffer from gender wage gap or gender gap. This is primarily because the inequality in wage has a negative impact all through their lives and particularly when they retire, since lower salaries result in lower pensions as well as a greater risk of poverty in older age. Nevertheless, there is an increasing awareness that the executive management of companies within the tourism sector in England and France stand to lose or would never attain significant competencies that women stuck in middle management hold (Selody 2010). Typically, countries that have large sector differentials as well as high rewards to skill tend to show big gender wage gaps. Nevertheless, more compressed male wage structures together with low female work supply comparative to demand tend to decrease the gender wage gap. Additionally, the degree of collective bargaining coverage within France and England is negatively linked with their gender pay differences.

Fourth is dissimilarities in the overall wage structure or glass ceiling effect. Career pathways of many qualified women are at times blocked by invisible and informal barriers, a phenomenon commonly referred to as the glass ceiling, which restricts the access of women to information as well as networks within firms (Yurtoglu & Zulehner 2009). The glass ceiling hypothesis prevents women executives from attaining high salaries. Albrecht and Vroman (2008) stated that gender differences with regard to rewards is the key factor explaining the growth of the wage gap among executives within firms in the field of tourism in both France and England. Consequently, justifications that base on tastes for instance women choosing to work in less painful though less paid jobs are not adequate in rationalizing the glass ceiling effect. In France, public policies play a significant role in understanding the gender wage gap pattern. Policies which are family-oriented serve to encourage women to enter the labor market for instance in the field of tourism, but the benefits of these policies are also inclined to diminish their career commitment. Meyersson, Petersen and Snartland (2009) pointed out that in England, employers within the field of tourism might face uncertainty and doubt on the level of productivity of women. In reality, women are often typified by more discontinuous careers as a result of births as well as specialization in domestic chores. Subsequently, companies would offer them salaries that are lower because they take the risk of facing their poor output and productivity.

Whilst a consensus exists on the fact that women executives are out earned by their male counterparts in the field of tourism in both England and France, a number of problems might prevent one from illustrating a precise picture of the gender wage gap as well as its discrepancies across the wage distribution as Ragins (2005) stated. The first difficulty originates from the fact that a vast majority of women do not participate in the labor market or work full-time. The second difficulty is the type of sector or company, and this plays a key role as far as explaining the differences in individual earnings is concerned. Women are typically inclined to work within sectors that pay low, and this could have an impact on gender wage discrepancy. Top executive positions in many firms including those within the tourism sector in both France and England usually consists of homogenous population of highly skilled individuals, including managers who belong to different hierarchical levels and all of them have university degrees – postgraduate or PhD (McCann & Minter 2013).

On average in England and France, women’s participation in the labor force at present reaches 62% and in paid employment it stands at 47.2% and it continues to increase substantially. This is a clear indication of a contraction of the gender gap in labor force participation for women, including in top positions within firms in the tourism industry (Lyness & Thompson 2006). An important measure of the improvement of women in executive positions in England and France within the tourism field is the availability of good quality jobs for women in senior managerial or official positions. Greater participation rates for women in such jobs would indicate a narrowing of discrimination barriers. Even though women continue to represent a distinct minority in these positions in both France and England, holding on average 28.8% of executive and senior positions in the tourism industry, there has been a significant progress. In England, women have increased their portion of executive positions in the past ten years by 4.2% to the present level of 31.5%, whereas in France, their share increased by 2.4% to stand at 26.1% today (Albrecht & Vroman 2008). Given these advances, nonetheless, women in France and England holding top jobs in the tourism industry continue to earn less compared to men. In both countries, the difference in average gross monthly earnings between men and women at executive positions in the tourism sector remains at a high level of 15%. This discrepancy in the levels of earnings between women and men emanates primarily from several structural inequalities as well as non-respect of equal pay (Meyersson, Petersen & Snartland 2009). Although there is a growing political will to decrease the gender gap in the European Union (EU), initiatives used many times fail to have substantial impact because the actual reasons for the continuing gender gap have a propensity of being misidentified.

In France and England, direct wage inequity accounts for only a marginal part of the gender wage gap in the field of tourism. Lyness and Thompson (2006) observed that the key reason why female employees are paid less compared to their male workmates is not because they are paid less for doing the same job, but because they do not do similar job. Female employees are under-represented in the tourism industries in both countries and in management positions and thus, do not have the same career and wage options like men. As such, fighting against gender gap largely implies broadening women’s career perspectives and encouraging women and girls to take on jobs that are typically for men, whilst putting commonly female soft skills such as conflict management, empathy and social competence into use. To further bolster career development of women and advancement into executive positions in firms within the field of tourism in both France and England, mechanisms need to be put in place that would help women make the transition from marginal work arrangements to regular full-time job. To this end, publicly-funded programs for qualifications as well as continuing education would serve as a good start (Zahidi & Ibarra 2010).

Conclusion

            Gender gap commonly refers to the disparity existing between the numbers of male and female workers in a given profession or the income inequality by gender, which is gender pay gap. Roughly sixty-three percent of new graduates in Europe are female, although their academic successes are not often mirrored in their career path, be it in the labor market or in politics. France is at present one of the most significant nations worldwide and one reason for this is its highly advanced and developed tourism industry considering that Paris is the most visited city globally. Just like France, England is also a major tourist destination in the world. Tourism is vital to the economies of England and France and generates roughly £97 billion and £ 290 billion for England and France respectively. In both countries, the tourism industry employs over 2.1 million workers and supports very many businesses both indirectly and directly.

However, gender gap is present is most companies within the tourism industry, particularly in private companies. Despite a number of decades of significant increase in the participation of women in the labor force in France and England, women representation in senior and executive corporate positions is still very marginal, and the glass ceiling phenomenon continues to puzzle lay commentators and researchers in a similar way. Even though women represent roughly 52.3% and 47.2% of professional, management and related occupations in England and France respectively, they make up only 18.1% and 15.4% of board members of top companies in field of tourism in England and France respectively. There is a noteworthy gender gap in European countries and a vast majority of firms within the field of tourism in both France and England do not have gender-diverse boards.

There are several causes of gender gap in both France and England. The first one is labor market segregation, whereby women are inclined to work more in statuses and fields that do not pay well and a vast majority of girls continue to restrict their career choices to a narrow range of jobs in spite of their higher academic performance. This leads to the under-representation of women in the tourism industry hence contributing to the existing gender gap in the field of tourism in both France and England. Secondly is differences in productivity between women and men which comes about because of dissimilarities in training or education, selection of the sector/field or limited flexibility resulting from family commitments. The third cause is the glass ceiling effect, which are informal and invisible barriers that sometimes block career paths of many qualified women by restricting their access to information as well as networks within companies. The glass ceiling effects prevents women executives from attaining high salaries. Fourth the tendency of male bosses to promote and favor male workers but not the female ones making the career of many women to end upon reaching middle management positions.

A significant measure of the improvement of women in executive positions in England and France within the tourism field is the availability of good quality jobs for women in senior managerial or official positions. Greater participation rates for women in such jobs would signify a narrowing of discrimination barriers and gender gap. In England and France over the past decade, women have increased their portion of executive positions in firms within the tourism industry. Nevertheless, they continue to earn less compared to men largely because of several structural inequalities as well as non-respect of equal pay. Since recently, increasing political will to decrease the gender gap not just in France and England, but all over Europe can be observed, and this plays a major role with regard to reducing gender gap in the field of tourism in England and France. Equal pay laws and initiatives usually call for paying female and male employees similar wage when they both do similar job.

 

References

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