Munar, Ana Maria

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Thompson Rivers University 
Digital Commons @ TRU Library 
Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI) Conference 
Jun 27th, 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM 
To Be a Feminist: Illuminating the Nature of Feminism in the 
Tourism Academy 
Ana Maria Munar 
Copenhagen Business School 
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Munar, Ana Maria, "To Be a Feminist: Illuminating the Nature of Feminism in the Tourism Academy" 
(2016). Tourism Education Futures Initiative (TEFI) Conference. 9. 
https://digitalcommons.library.tru.ca/tefi/tefi9/day2/9 
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To	Be	a	Feminist:	Illuminating	the	Nature	of	Feminism	in	the	Tourism	Academy	
Ana	María	Munar,	Copenhagen	Business	School,	Denmark		
Feminism	is	a	popular,	but	also	highly	contested	and	polemic	term	(Calas	&	Smircich,	
2006).	It	takes	multiple	shapes	as	an	ideology,	a	social	movement,	a	political	programme,	a	
philosophical	tradition	and	a	personal	identity,	among	others.	“Feminist”	is	an	adjective	
that	can	be	added	to	almost	anything:	research,	education,	politics,	theater,	literature…;	and	
to	all	scholarly	or	disciplinary	identities,	for	example	feminist	sociologists,	economists,	
psychologists,	etc.	This	complexity	is	reflected	in	the	large	variety	of	ways	a	scholar	can	
adopt	and	express	(or	reject)	his/her	feminist	identity.	The	personal	declaration	“I	am	a	
feminist”	and	the	social	judgement	made	about	others	(“she/he	is	a	feminist”)	hide	many	
different	meanings	and	implications	depending	on	the	personal	understanding	of	this	term	
and	the	social	context	and	circumstances.	These	consequences	matter	for	the	ways	in	
which	we	envision	and	understand	a	feminist	agenda	for	academia.	What	do	we	mean	by	
being	a	feminist	academic?	And	what	does	feminism	mean	for	the	Tourism	Academy	of	the	
21st	century?		
This	article	aims	at	illuminating	and	making	sense	of	these	two	complex	and	polemic	
questions.	It	does	so	by	firstly	providing	a	critical	analysis	of	the	ways	the	terms	“feminism”	
and	“feminist”	have	been	portrayed	by	academic	literature	in	different	historical	periods	
and	secondly,	using	this	theoretical	landscape	to	analyze	four	empirical	data	sets:	a	series	
of	public	email	discussions	regarding	gender	equality	that	took	place	on	the	listserv	
Tourism	Research	Information	Network	in	the	years	2014	and	2015;	the	posts	and	
comments	shared	in	the	online	community	Women	Academics	in	Tourism	in	the	year	2015;	
a	series	of	interviews	with	tourism	academics	from	diverse	nationalities	and	professional	
seniority	(spring	2016);	and	my	own	personal	narrative	based	on	memory	work.	This	
analysis	will	provide	the	background	to	advance	some	ideas	about	the	consequences	that	
our	understanding	of	feminism	and	being	a	feminist	has	for	the	tourism	academy	of	today	
and	of	tomorrow.	
References	
	
Calas,	M.,	&	Smircich,	L.	(2006).	From	the	'Woman's	Point	of	View'	Ten	Years	Later:	
Towards	a	Feminist	Organization	Studies.	In	S.	Clegg,	C.	Hardy,	T.	Lawrence,	&	W.	
Nord	(Eds.),	The	Sage	handbook	of	organization	studies	(2nd	ed.,	pp.	284–347).	
London:	Sage	Publications.		
	


To Be a Feminist: Illuminating the Nature of Feminism in the Tourism Academy

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To Be a Feminist: Illuminating the Nature of Feminism in the Tourism Academy

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