The hospitality sector is the third largest UK employer and represents 3.2m jobs with women accounting for approximately 60% of its workforce. Despite this, the lack of women's representation in senior management roles remains a critical concern in the sector. Despite implementing several measures such as flexible working hours, family-friendly policies and gender awareness training, only 11% of women in the sector hold a senior managerial position as well as being paid on average 3.45% less across the industry.
New research from the University of Greenwich by Valentine Calinaud, Dr Jithendran Kokkranikal and Dr Maria Gebbels aims to gain insight into what factors are helping woman reach senior positions. The study analyses female managers' perceptions about their career advancement within this sector and identifies key factors to facilitate women's career advancement. The findings reveal that despite improvements in career opportunities for women within the UK hospitality organizations, there is still a long way to go in terms of employment policies and practices that enable women's career progression.
The research then sets out key changes the industry must make if it is to improve and address these imbalances:
- A diverse workforce can help businesses enhance competitiveness, which requires an organisational culture that promotes a diversity-supportive work environment.
- Ensure work-life balance and flexible working policies are a priority for businesses. Flexibility and a participative leadership style that promotes proactive career management initiatives for women are also important.
- Better accountability for gender-equality policies, gender-awareness training and open debates about women's empowerment and gender equality.
- Support to women when they return from career breaks, shared parental leave, the establishment of mentoring programmes and better use of technology to enable flexible working.
- Employees can also help eradicate the glass ceiling by taking advantage of work-life balance and flexible working programmes. Sharing of childcare responsibilities by men could help women not take a career break for childcare and provide them with more job stability and opportunities for career development.
Overcoming the many visible and invisible barriers to women's career advancement requires conscious initiatives from all stakeholders. However, there is limited evidence of businesses actively taking measures to support women's career advancement. The research argues an organisation wide culture change that supports family-friendly policies is important to address work-life imbalances for women.
Read the full paper here
