Gender factor in employment in the hospitality industry in the Accra metropolis

Abstract

The leisure and tourism industry is one of the leading global economic activities. A multi-billion-dollar industry with 700 million international travellers per year around the world, tourism has become an avenue for employment and income creation, especially in poor countries. As an industry, there is division of labour by gender at all levels of the travel and tourism sectors. Women are the most employed yet they have the least dignified positions in the industry. The study assessed the socio-demographic background of employees in the hospitality industry in Ghana, the positions both men and women occupy in the industry, the conditions under which they work and the problems women in particular encounter in their career advancement. The main primary sources consisted of data collected from 248 persons made up of 228 employees and 20 employers/managers. The study adopted Messiah’s, (1993) Gender Analysis Framework. The study revealed that there were gender differences in the sociodemograPhi0 background of employees. For instance, seventy-one percent of the women compared to only 10% of the men were between the ages of 1$ and 28 while 59% of the men against 12% of the women were found to be between 29 and 39 sears old. Women were also found to occupy lower positions in the industry. There were reported perceptions of gender inequities or discrimination at the workplace in the areas of promotion, training opportunities and income. There is therefore the need for employees, enterprises institutions and governments to eliminate or minimize the perception of discrimination on grounds of sex. Further studies should be conducted on sex discrimination within the industry beyond the perceptions.