Bakas, Fiona

Breda, Zelia

Costa, Carlos

Durão, Marília

English

Digital Commons @ TRU Library (Thompson Rivers University)

Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings
Volume 2017 Article 133
2017
Will the ‘Ideal Tourism Worker’ Please Stand Up?
Analysing Gender Essentialism within Tourism
Workforce Recruitment through Flexibility
Discourse
Fiona Bakas
Universidade de Aveiro, fiona.bakas@ua.pt
Carlos Costa
Zelia Breda
Marília Durão
Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/cts-proceedings
Part of the Tourism and Travel Commons
This Abstract is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ TRU Library. It has been accepted for inclusion in Critical Tourism
Studies Proceedings by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ TRU Library. For more information, please contact kgaynor@tru.ca.
Recommended Citation
Bakas, Fiona; Costa, Carlos; Breda, Zelia; and Durão, Marília (2017) "Will the ‘Ideal Tourism Worker’ Please Stand Up? Analysing
Gender Essentialism within Tourism Workforce Recruitment through Flexibility Discourse," Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings: Vol.
2017 , Article 133.
Available at: http://digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/cts-proceedings/vol2017/iss1/133
 Title: Will the ‘Ideal Tourism Worker’ Please Stand Up? Analysing Gender Essentialism within 
Tourism Workforce Recruitment through Flexibility Discourse 
Author: Fiona Bakas, Carlos Costa, Zelia Breda, & Marília Durão 
Affiliation: Universidade de Aveiro and GOVCOPP 
Contact: fiona.bakas@ua.pt 
Session type: Presentation 
 
Abstract: 
Attracting and keeping skilled professionals is one the largest challenges facing the 
tourism industry, illustrated by the very high employee turnover rates in tourism (Baum, 2013; 
Deery & Jago, 2009; Santero-Sanchez et al., 2015). High employee turnover rates are largely 
attributed to tourism work’s low-paid nature but also to the difficulties in maintaining a work-life 
balance because of the long, irregular, and unsociable work hours and shift work characteristic of 
tourism labour. Social reproduction encompasses all the activities undertaken to maintain the 
present and future generation (e.g., caring, housework) and is essential to the capitalist process of 
accumulation. However, responsibility for social reproduction is often connected with 
femininity, meaning that female tourism workers have or are perceived to have less flexibility at 
work. ‘Flexibility’ is itself a highly ambiguous and debated term within the context of labour 
relations (Brumley, 2014). In this paper, flexibility is defined as the employee characteristic to be 
available to work whenever the employer wants him/her to. 
Gender roles can play a significant role in how the ‘ideal tourism worker’ discourse is 
constructed. However, there is limited literature that investigates how gender roles influence 
tourism recruitment practices. Hence this paper’s main research objective is to investigate how 
gender roles influence constructions of ‘ideal tourism worker’ discourse, through the lens of the 
employee characteristic of flexibility in tourism recruitment. The impetus to critique existing 
‘ideal tourism worker’ discourse is rooted in the idea that the neoclassical economics model of 
‘rational economic man’, according to which all individuals operate solely with the aim of 
creating more individual profit, is flawed. From a feminist economics angle, agency cannot be 
reduced to a simple case of “individual utility maximisation strategy” (Gammage et al., 2016, p. 
2). 
Qualitative and quantitative data from a unique three-year project on the role of gender in 
tourism labour in Portugal informs this study. Quantitative data was gathered between September 
2013 and March 2015 via online surveys, 401 of which were eventually considered valid. In the 
questionnaires, the respondents were asked to rate criteria that commonly influence companies’ 
recruitment practices. Qualitative data was co-created through focus groups with 79 participants 
over the period November 2013 to March 2014. Qualitative and quantitative research 
participants were tourism managers from the public and private tourism sectors from all seven 
Portuguese administrative regions (mainland and islands). Thematic analysis methods were used 
for a systematic examination of the collected data, using a mix of deductive and inductive 
approaches in the iterative process. 
Data analysis suggests that whist there is an overall impression that attaining ‘ideal 
worker’ status ‘all has to do with the attitude, availability, professionalism and the willingness to 
accomplish’ (P45), something is influencing female workers’ ability to adhere to current ‘ideal 
tourism worker’ models. In-depth analysis of focus groups reveals how the male hegemony 
within ‘ideal tourism worker’ discourse is perpetuated: through silences. Recruiters do not 
1
Bakas et al.: Will the ‘Ideal Tourism Worker’ Please Stand Up? Analysing Gender
Published by Digital Commons @ TRU Library, 2017
 specifically talk about what good male worker characteristics are, but do talk about good female 
worker characteristics. The connection between social reproductive gender roles and flexibility is 
evident in the qualitative data, where managers comment on how women are less available 
because they choose to prioritise family over work. However, some tourism managers in this 
study challenge ‘ideal worker’ discourse, which excludes women because of their perceived 
unavailability, by pointing out that female employees are often more available than male 
employees. Tourism managers also challenge the masculinised ‘ideal worker’ norm, by 
introducing certain feminine characteristics into the ‘ideal worker’ discourse. They do this by 
saying how female workers are better than male workers in various ways, such as being more 
responsible and more attentive to detail than men. 
We hope that critical evaluations of the dialectics between power and knowledge that 
construct norms which define economic activities, such as the present one, can contribute to the 
creation of a more socially just society and economically viable tourism industry. 
 
References: 
Baum, T. (2015). Human resources in tourism: Still waiting for change? – A 2015 reprise.  
Tourism Management, 50, 204–212. 
Baum, T. (2013). International Perspectives on Women and Work in Hotels, Catering, and  
Tourism, Geneva. 
Brumley, K.M. (2014). “Now, we have the same rights as men to keep our jobs”: Gendered  
perceptions of opportunity and obstacles in a Mexican workplace. Gender, Work, & 
Organization, 21(3), 217–230. 
Deery, M., & Jago, L. (2009). A framework for work-life balance practices: Addressing the  
needs of the tourism industry. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 9(2), 97–108. 
Gammage, S., Kabeer, N., & van der Meulen Rodgers, Y. (2016). Voice and agency: Where are  
we now? Feminist Economics, 22(1), 1–29. 
Santero-Sanchez, R., et al. (2015). Gender differences in the hospitality industry: A Job quality  
index. Tourism Management, 51, 234–246. 
 
 
 
 
  
2
Critical Tourism Studies Proceedings, Vol. 2017 [2017], Art. 133
http://digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/cts-proceedings/vol2017/iss1/133


Will the ‘Ideal Tourism Worker’ Please Stand Up? Analysing Gender Essentialism within Tourism Workforce Recruitment through Flexibility Discourse

https://digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1004&amp;context=cts-proceedings

Will the ‘Ideal Tourism Worker’ Please Stand Up? Analysing Gender Essentialism within Tourism Workforce Recruitment through Flexibility Discourse

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Digital Commons @ TRU Library (Thompson Rivers University)