The role of collective trust and gender in fostering collaboration within women-only networks in a niche industry

Drawing from a study of an informal network of women brewers, this article explores the multi-faceted role trust and single-gender membership play in strengthening collaboration and forging relationships within contemporary women-only entrepreneurial networks. It argues that trust is not only integral but also a facet without which such networks would not work effectively. It is also argued that for trust to emerge and maintain, creation of a safe environment and trust building activities - both online and face-to-face - is necessary. While studies have been conducted on trust in networks, these are largely quantitative, gender-blind and based within large organisations. Providing an in-depth and nuanced exploration of women brewers’ experiences of belonging to a women’s informal network within a niche industry, perceived benefits as well as examining the gendered dimension of trust in networks, this article addresses this gap and argues for more qualitative research in this area. In so doing, the article furthers debates on the gendered nature of networks and trust within informal networks. It presents a six-pillar framework to further understanding of the role of trust in networks, and calls for further research into gender and trust as well as the nature of online communities in contemporary networking

Towards welcome: Foregrounding voices and giving visibility to the marginalised in tourism workplaces and beyond

This chapter sets out a framework for examining the multiple interlinking dimensions of (un)welcome. Comprising six dimensions – Body, Place, Encounter, Structure, Representation and Milieu – the framework can be used in a range of different contexts to problematise and understand perceptions and experiences of welcome from the perspective of the constructed Other. This could be, for example, tourists, minority groups, communities, workers. The piece argues that through gaining understanding into the lived experiences of (un)welcome of minority groups, we can come closer to making tourism experiences, workplaces and communities more inclusive. The final sections discuss the need for welcoming methodologies that foreground participants’ voices and give visibility to their experiences, and the need for a greater focus on a scholarship of welcome that engages students with social justice education to shape more reflective and critical citizens as well as professionals

Transforming the culture of student employment in hospitality

This Policy brief identifies the key challenges working students face and puts forward the case for policy change to address the impacts term-time work can have on students. The combination of the need to work, pressurised working environments and the scheduling power zero-hour contracts give to hospitality employers can position young and financially disadvantaged students into vulnerability. Students work in hospitality to earn money and fit work around their schedules but the work they take on can have detrimental impacts on their wellbeing and academic performance. Young students on zero-hour contracts constitute a hitherto unrecognised vulnerable worker group and new policies are required to improve the working lives of students who work

Conceptualising the agency of migrant women workers: Resilience, reworking and resistance

This article examines migrant women tourism workers’ understandings of, and diverse responses to, exploitative working conditions by taking account of the constraints posed by oppressive contexts and ideologies. It analyses how their location at the intersection of multiple axes of disadvantage and discrimination on account of gender, ethno-nationality, immigration status and migration history as well as their low-status employment and educational level, shapes both their understandings of particular experiences of exploitation and possible responses to these, and examines the effects of their practices upon the power structures at work. Based on the experiences of eleven women from Central and Eastern European countries working in the UK tourism industry, this article theorises workers’ responses to hyperexploitative employment relations by utilising a differentiated conceptualisation of agency as practices of resilience, reworking and resistance. In doing so, it rejects binary categories of victimhood and agency, as well as romanticised accounts of unmitigated resistance

Humanising migrant women’s work

Female migrants make an important contribution to the global tourism industry yet their employment experiences and histories are poorly understood. This paper draws on a phenomenological position to explore the life-world and ten-year employment trajectory of one highly skilled Polish immigrant to the UK as told through her own voice and artwork. It challenges prevailing de-personalised and gender-blind accounts of tourism migrant workers, and demonstrates the methodological potential of one-voice research to humanise the female migrant experience, document long-term employment trajectories and foreground complex working lives. The paper provides nuanced understanding of intersectional gendered and ethnic marginalisation in the labour market and explores the ways in which employment creates spaces for both oppression and self-determination for precarious workers

‘Don’t use “the weak word”’: Women brewers, identities and gendered territories of embodied work

Focusing on an unresearched group of women brewers, and drawing conceptually on embodiment and identity work, this article explores worker corporealities within the gendered landscape of microbreweries and deepens understanding of the body/work/gender nexus in the context of brewer’s work. In doing so, it challenges the marginalisation of female worker bodies in scholarly work on male-dominated occupations. Drawing on interview and observation data collected in the UK in 2015, verbal narratives of women brewers’ experiences of their working lives are utilised to provide insights into how their gendered bodily practices constitute resources for constructing a distinctive ‘brewster’ identity. Women brewers engage in identity work, on both individual and collective levels, through the material and symbolic framing of their embodied and gendered working selves; navigating their physical working environments; downplaying gender to emphasise physical competence; and foregrounding gender in relation to non-physical aspects to accentuate difference and collective contribution

Women-only networks in male-dominated occupations: The role of collective trust and gender in fostering collaboration and building resilience

Drawing from a study of a UK network of female brewers, this paper explores the multi-faceted role trust and single-gender networks play in enabling women’s resilience through strengthening collaboration and forging relationships between geographically dispersed women working in a male-dominated sector. Although more women enter the microbrewing sector each year, brewing remains male-dominated and breweries constitute largely masculine territories. Women entering the sector face numerous challenges to gain acceptance and challenge masculine norms in their workplaces. This includes the need to continuously prove their competency for what is considered a traditionally masculine role and demonstrate their suitability for performing the hard-physical work of brewing. Furthermore, women brewers are under-represented in the sector’s formal networks and committees, and their breweries are geographically dispersed, which makes exerting influence difficult. This paper looks at how a cross-UK women-only informal network of brewers enables women to negotiate these constraints, mitigate certain layers of disadvantage and build resilience to the complex range of challenges associated with their career choice on both the individual and collective levels. The paper provides an in-depth and nuanced exploration of how trust within a network acts as an enabler of resilience. While studies have been conducted on trust in networks, these are largely quantitative, gender-blind and based within large organisations. The paper thus seeks to further debates on the gendered nature of networks and explore how trust within informal networks fosters resilience

Accession 8 female artists

This two-day exhibition, which constituted one of the public engagement stages of my doctoral research, showcased artworks created by migrant women. It was part of the West Bristol Arts Trail. This exhibition was also presented during the IV International Critical Tourism Studies Conference in Cardiff