The Impact of Tourism in the Reduction of Gender Inequality

Year 2018, Volume: 7 Issue: 1, 20 - 35, 20.07.2018

Ruhet Genç

Abstract

Abstract

In this study, the role tourism sector on gender
equality will be further investigated in order to propose a reliable solution
for the ongoing debate on the relationship between gender inequality and
tourism sector. The paper will start with a body of literature on the impact of
tourism sector on gender equality based on the previous studies. The
methodology will be literature review and critical evaluation of the findings.
Finally, the study will conclude the fact that tourism sector has a capacity to
provide significantly higher amount of specific benefits for women and
therefore positively contribute to the establishment of gender equality. The
manuscript will investigate the positive contribution of tourism sector on the
well-beings of women in three different aspects. First, the economic conditions
of women prone to increase in the presence of tourism sector corresponding to
new opportunities of employment as well as creating revenues for public
spending, specifically to finance the social policies for women. Secondly,
tourism sector enables social interaction among people from different cultural
backgrounds and provide an opportunity for women in a particular destination to
observe which cultural rights other women have in other countries and open the
eyes of local women for the rights that they can obtain. And third,
psychological well-being of women which is measured by Quality of Life (QoL) is
likely to increase as they take part in the economic activities and social
life. The paper will also suggest a model in order to provide a quantitative
analysis for the gender inequality, including the possible related economic and
social variables.

Key Words:
Tourism, Gender, Inequality

Introduction

Gender inequality is one of the major problems of
today’s world. Although there are some significant changes in recent years,
gender inequality remains as a significant problem, particularly in terms of
economic aspects (Blau, 2016). There is still a big debate on whether tourism
sector increase the burden on women by expropriating them further or it is
beneficial for women employment and gender equality. Some scholars claim that
the challenges inherent in gender mainstreaming processes by public policies
worldwide are replicated and even exacerbated in the tourism sector (Ferguson
& Alarcón, 2015) whereas studies conducted by other scholars depict that
tourism is capable of providing specific advantages for women and has a
mitigating impact on gender inequality especially in the areas where tourism
employment is available (Khatiwada & Silva, 2015). Nevertheless, the gender
research are claimed to remain limited within the tourism enquiry despite three
decades of study and the recent increase in investigations (Figueroa-Domecq et.
al., 2015). Not even surprisingly, the gender discrimination in the field of
tourism is not only limited to the women who are employed in the tourism
sector, but rather the discrimination even reflects on the scientific
investigation, and studies conducted by women scholars in order to complain how
tourism research maintain the invisibility of women in academic field (Munar
et. al., 2015).

Some scholars argue that the recent paradigm in the
policies regarding to development in tourism should be reconsidered to increase
the potential of tourism to a maximum level so that women can be empowered and
other steps can be taken to promote gender equality (Ferguson, 2011). Mere
presence of tourism will not provide equality by itself, as there are many
social and cultural barriers that women need to overcome. Therefore, an
understanding that increases the prosperity of women in financial, social and
psychological senses is required, not only in the academic field but also in
the policies of local and national level of governments.

Hıstorical Development of
Gender Inequality

Since the earlier times of human-being, the
distinction between two sexes has been showing its impact on all aspects of
social, economic, political, cultural and artistic life. Although each society
has its own traditions and cultural codes in terms of gender norms, the general
tendency of societies was to “evolve” into patriarchal communities where the
role of women have been diminished to private space or house, the definition of
women has been made related to family whereas men enjoy their individual lives,
independent decisions, and opportunities to engage in social realm. One of the
main reasons that has historically widened the gap between men and women is the
position of women within the family, as they generally diminish the
opportunities for participation into the labor force, and eventually this lack
of participation leads to economic dependency of women to the breadwinner
(male) of the family, hence reinforcing the gender inequality in the family
(Donchin, 2010).

Nevertheless, gender inequality is not one homogenous
phenomenon that can be reduced into one aspect such as economic or social, but
rather there are many facets of the problem which are diverse and interlinked
at the same time (Sen, 2001). For this reason, while gender equality is taken
into consideration within the scientific inquiry, the conceptualization shows
difference from one study to another. Some scholars focused on economic aspects
of inequality whereas some others focus on social properties, such as access to
education and health (Arora, 2012). The principal interest of this paper will
be economic inequality between women and men based on current social and
economic structure, and financial well-being will be assessed through wage
differentiation and availability of employment for women. However, the impact
of tourism will not be limited to economic gains, since social integration of
women also increases as tourism industry provides them an opportunity to get
into social life and meet new cultures. Therefore, social aspects of gender
inequality will be included to the conceptualization of inequality of this
study.

Besides, although the participation of women has been
increasing in the sector of hospitality, scholars claimed that women are mainly
working in the inferior positions and poorly paid jobs (Sigüenza, Brotons &
Huete, 2013). Male superiority with respect to the understating of “male
breadwinner” leads to the perception of males as the head of household and
decision makers for the family (Duffy et. al., 2015). Bearing this fact in
mind, policies need to be implemented with respect to increasing the prosperity
of women in the social realm. Merely increasing the job opportunities while
paying significantly less than men for the same job would not increase the
welfare of women, if not decrease it by degrading their power compared to men.

In general, the structure and the organization within
the labor market do not correspond to equality between genders, as it already
reproduces traditional gender roles which maintain the division in the sense
that women need to spend much more time and energy compared to men for the
domestic, family-related work such as cooking, cleaning, etc., hence men have
an advantage in the labor market (Sigüenza, Brotons & Huete, 2013). For
instance, cultural structure in lesser economically developed countries
discourage the participation of women into labor force, restricting the role of
women in the private sphere of house while keeping men active in the public
sphere of community (Duffy et. al, 2015). For that reason, presence of tourism
sector is capable of mitigating the gap between women and men, if the policies
target at increasing the prosperity of women implemented effectively.

The Contribution of Tourism
Sector to Gender Equality

Following
the rise of globalization, local economies started to integrate in larger ones,
providing benefits to the economic actors. However, distribution of welfare is
not independent from the internal dynamics of a particular region, and
therefore the impact of globalization generally differs for different groups
such as women, people with disabilities, or other type of marginalized groups
in rural or urban areas (Arora, 2012). If these differences are not regulated
properly by the means of national or local government policies, then the
positive influence of any kind of new economic activity will not be realized,
and rather the gap increases between advantages and disadvantaged, as in the
case of poor-rich gap, as well as the gap between women and men.

It has been claimed that, tourism can offer an
alternative for women where they can engage in activism, community leadership,
political realm, along with providing opportunities for employment and
entrepreneurship, and therefore every two of three people in tourism workforce
is female and women’s chance in tourism employment is twice more than being
employers in other sectors (World Tourism Organization, 2011; Figueroa-Domecq
et. al., 2015). Studies revealed the existence of women-managed tourism
enterprises as well. For instance, homestay tourism in certain destinations
including Nepal, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Thailand re mainly managed by women
entrepreneurs (Acharya & Halpenny, 2013). Especially with the help of these
types of entrepreneurships, tourism employment is capable of providing
advantages for women, which help to alleviate the devastating impact of gender
inequality (Khatiwada & Silva, 2015).

Although the process of tourism development is assumed
as being “gender-neutral”, scholars claim that gender dynamics are embedded in
the process (Ferguson, 2011), emphasizing the underlying impact of gender
discrimination which is not limited to overt practice of sexism, but rather it
subtly reproduce the gender roles through sexual division of labor and every
day sexism. Hence, construction and reinforcement of new power relations
emerging as a result of tourism process cannot be acknowledged properly without
understanding the complex structure of gender segregation in tourism and the
existing power relations (Kinnaird & Hall, 1996).

In order to provide a better understanding for the
complex structure of gender inequality and its relationship with tourism
industry, a model will be presented in order to explain the impact of tourism
on women with respect to three main variables including economic gains, social
inclusion and quality of life.

The Model

There are three important aspects that determine the
level of impact of tourism on gender equality, namely economic gains, social
integration and psychological well-being of women. To begin with the economic
impacts, existence of tourism industry in a particular destination provides an
important source of economic welfare by increasing the job opportunities.
Moreover, economic impact of tourism is not limited to employees who are
working in the tourism sector. As tourism is a key industry for overall
economic development, it makes the emergence of side industry possible,
increasing the overall labor demand. Since
the aim of this study is to measure the gender equality with respect to tourism
activity, absolute numbers will not be sufficient. Tourism may increase the
financial gains, hence economic well-being of individuals, but as long as the
rate of increase for the income of women is lower than men’s income, the gap
will be widened and the presence of tourism industry will reflect as a negative
impact on the lives of women. Therefore, the rate of wage received by women to
total wage will be considered as an indicator for the impact of tourism.

Other than economic gains, social inclusion is an
important determinant for the impact of tourism on decreasing gender
inequality, and as women participates into the labor force and become visible
in the social realm; their social inclusion will be increased. Parallel to the
increase in financial well-being and availability of new job opportunities,
social inclusion of lower socio-economic classes and financially disadvantaged
groups such as women, especially in patriarchal societies as in the case of
Nepal, considerably increases (Ancharya & Halpenny, 2013). Furthermore,
studies regarding to participation of disadvantaged, socially-excluded groups
in tourism sector claim that tourism provide opportunities to promote social
inclusion by facilitating social interaction, creating networks among people, and
increasing the possibility of communication (McCabe, Joldersma & Li, 2010;
Grant & Kluge, 2012, Morgan, Pritchard & Sedgley, 2015). For that
reason, the degree of social inclusion is presented in the model as an
important indicator of the impact of tourism.

Finally, overall change in the quality of life of
women is an important determinant for the impact of tourism on the women living
in a particular destination. There is no doubt that quality of life increases
with holiday participation (McCabe, Joldersma & Li, 2010), however, the
impact is not limited to tourists, and tourism activity also increases the life
quality of local stakeholders, and especially those from disadvantaged,
underrepresented groups, as in the case of women (Andereck & Nyaupane,
2011) through encouragement of intercultural interactions, understanding based
on communication, peace, social and economic prosperity apart from economic
growth (McCabe & Joldersma & Li, 2010). Although quality of life has
many dimensions to be measured, presence of tourism as a reliable economic
industry will basically increase the self-confidence of women as they start to
take part in the labor market. Economic independence from the family economy
not only empowers the position of women in the society, but it also has a
significant positive impact on overall life quality for women. The overall
well-being of women can be measured by quality of life (QoL) variable in a
quantitative manner, indicating the level of psychological wellness of local
women in a particular tourism destination.

Hence our model can be considered as:                     

(1)  
TI = ß₀ + ß₁.RW/TR + ß₂.
SI + ß₃.QL + ε

where,

TI implies the Impact of Tourism

RW implies Total Revenues
Received by Women

TR implies Total Revenues
Received by All Actors

SI implies the degree of Social
Inclusion for Women

QL implies Quality of Life of
Women

ß₀, ß₁, ß₂
and ß₃ imply coefficients, and

ε implies residual (i.e. the
effect of other variables).

Furthermore,
total revenues received by women are not necessarily limited to the gains of
women working in tourism sector, as agents may receive direct or indirect
benefits when a particular region attract tourists, parallel to the emergence
of side industries including accommodation, restaurants, small-scale
self-employed tourism goods or service providers, and so on. Hence, the total
revenue received by women is composed of two main groups, namely direct and
indirect revenues. First, women who are employed in the tourism sector receive
a direct economic benefit which is equal to wage (W_T). Moreover,
tourism enables development of other sectors, and new employment opportunities
for women in the side industries where women receive an indirect economic
benefit from tourism industry, which is equal to wage (W_S) as well.
Hypothetically, the wage levels for women who are working in the tourism sector
and other sectors will be equal to each other in a competitive market
structure, as employers will be willing to employ women who would work at lower
wages and hence maximizing his profit by lower labor costs. Thus, the estimated
Total Revenue Received by Women (RW) will be calculated as:

(2)  
RW = W_T + W_S

Where;

         W_T = W_S

To recap, financial gains compared to men, along with the degree of
social inclusion and the quality of life of women are the three main variables
that are capable of explaining the impact of tourism on women. All of the three
variables presented in the model have a positive relationship with the impact of
tourism, such that the development of tourism in a particular region increases the
job opportunity, enabling women to earn money outside of their families,
increasing their financial power compared to men and contributing to their
economic independence, and as a result women have a position in social life and
their psychological well-being improves with these gains.

In addition to economic and
social impacts, there may be other variables that are capable of explaining the
variance in the level of impact of tourism activity on gender equality that the
suggested model did not capture. For example, when tourists come to a
particular destination, they transform the cultural life of this region through
cultural interaction. As a result of adaptation towards the needs of tourists,
cultural codes can be re-established, by allowing women have more space and decreasing
their burden in terms of domestic labour. Because of this, a residual is presented
in the model, which implies the variance that cannot be explained by the two main
variables.

The model is suitable for any
type of numerical data, since the main target of this model is to measure the
contribution of tourism activity to gender equality in a quantitative form. Thus,
the provided model is capable of responding to the complex nature of gender
inequality, where various social and economic factors interplay, and allowing
their measurement by the means of statistical analysis of objective scientific
activity, rather than qualitative evaluations where objectivity can be
questioned.

Concluding Remarks

In conclusion, tourism enhances the economic
well-being of women and places them a more equal position compared to men only
if there are specific, women-targeting policies implemented by local or
national governments. Previous studies suggest that women working in the
tourism sector have worse conditions and paid less than men (Marrero &
Huete, 2013). Likewise in all other sectors, tourism maintains the economic and
sexual exploitation of women via atrocious employment practices, unequal
payments and recreating gender roles (Pritchard, 2014; Figueora-Domecq et. al.,
2015). Therefore presence of tourism sector would contribute further to
inferior position of women in the society and increasing the gender gap in the
absence of policies targeting to integrate women into social life by expanding
their limit from domestic sphere where they are mainly entitled with food
preparation, cleaning, biological and social reproduction of children, caring
for the sick and elderly, and so on (Ferguson, 2011; Duffy et. al., 2015).

Engagement of disadvantaged individuals in a society
such as minorities, people with disabilities as well as women with
community-based local level tourism enterprise has a valuable contribution to
economic, social and environmental development (Acharya & Halpenny, 2013).
Studies revealed the significant contribution of community based tourism
characterized by community based natural resource management emphasizing the
local resident participation and empowerment (Khatiwada & Silva, 2015). All
in all, empowerment of women is not only important for the lives of women, but
it also plays a crucial role in the future of a society in a particular
society, as integration of all individuals, and especially women, would be
likely to increase the overall prosperity.

The Impact of Tourism in
the Reduction of Gender Inequality

Abstract

In this study, the role tourism sector on gender
equality will be further investigated in order to propose a reliable solution
for the ongoing debate on the relationship between gender inequality and
tourism sector. The paper will start with a body of literature on the impact of
tourism sector on gender equality based on the previous studies. The
methodology will be literature review and critical evaluation of the findings.
Finally, the study will conclude the fact that tourism sector has a capacity to
provide significantly higher amount of specific benefits for women and
therefore positively contribute to the establishment of gender equality. The
manuscript will investigate the positive contribution of tourism sector on the
well-beings of women in three different aspects. First, the economic conditions
of women prone to increase in the presence of tourism sector corresponding to
new opportunities of employment as well as creating revenues for public
spending, specifically to finance the social policies for women. Secondly,
tourism sector enables social interaction among people from different cultural
backgrounds and provide an opportunity for women in a particular destination to
observe which cultural rights other women have in other countries and open the
eyes of local women for the rights that they can obtain. And third,
psychological well-being of women which is measured by Quality of Life (QoL) is
likely to increase as they take part in the economic activities and social
life. The paper will also suggest a model in order to provide a quantitative
analysis for the gender inequality, including the possible related economic and
social variables.

Key Words:
Tourism, Gender, Inequality

Introduction

Gender inequality is one of the major problems of
today’s world. Although there are some significant changes in recent years,
gender inequality remains as a significant problem, particularly in terms of
economic aspects (Blau, 2016). There is still a big debate on whether tourism
sector increase the burden on women by expropriating them further or it is
beneficial for women employment and gender equality. Some scholars claim that
the challenges inherent in gender mainstreaming processes by public policies
worldwide are replicated and even exacerbated in the tourism sector (Ferguson
& Alarcón, 2015) whereas studies conducted by other scholars depict that
tourism is capable of providing specific advantages for women and has a
mitigating impact on gender inequality especially in the areas where tourism
employment is available (Khatiwada & Silva, 2015). Nevertheless, the gender
research are claimed to remain limited within the tourism enquiry despite three
decades of study and the recent increase in investigations (Figueroa-Domecq et.
al., 2015). Not even surprisingly, the gender discrimination in the field of
tourism is not only limited to the women who are employed in the tourism
sector, but rather the discrimination even reflects on the scientific
investigation, and studies conducted by women scholars in order to complain how
tourism research maintain the invisibility of women in academic field (Munar
et. al., 2015).

Some scholars argue that the recent paradigm in the
policies regarding to development in tourism should be reconsidered to increase
the potential of tourism to a maximum level so that women can be empowered and
other steps can be taken to promote gender equality (Ferguson, 2011). Mere
presence of tourism will not provide equality by itself, as there are many
social and cultural barriers that women need to overcome. Therefore, an
understanding that increases the prosperity of women in financial, social and
psychological senses is required, not only in the academic field but also in
the policies of local and national level of governments.

Hıstorical Development of
Gender Inequality

Since the earlier times of human-being, the
distinction between two sexes has been showing its impact on all aspects of
social, economic, political, cultural and artistic life. Although each society
has its own traditions and cultural codes in terms of gender norms, the general
tendency of societies was to “evolve” into patriarchal communities where the
role of women have been diminished to private space or house, the definition of
women has been made related to family whereas men enjoy their individual lives,
independent decisions, and opportunities to engage in social realm. One of the
main reasons that has historically widened the gap between men and women is the
position of women within the family, as they generally diminish the
opportunities for participation into the labor force, and eventually this lack
of participation leads to economic dependency of women to the breadwinner
(male) of the family, hence reinforcing the gender inequality in the family
(Donchin, 2010).

Nevertheless, gender inequality is not one homogenous
phenomenon that can be reduced into one aspect such as economic or social, but
rather there are many facets of the problem which are diverse and interlinked
at the same time (Sen, 2001). For this reason, while gender equality is taken
into consideration within the scientific inquiry, the conceptualization shows
difference from one study to another. Some scholars focused on economic aspects
of inequality whereas some others focus on social properties, such as access to
education and health (Arora, 2012). The principal interest of this paper will
be economic inequality between women and men based on current social and
economic structure, and financial well-being will be assessed through wage
differentiation and availability of employment for women. However, the impact
of tourism will not be limited to economic gains, since social integration of
women also increases as tourism industry provides them an opportunity to get
into social life and meet new cultures. Therefore, social aspects of gender
inequality will be included to the conceptualization of inequality of this
study.

Besides, although the participation of women has been
increasing in the sector of hospitality, scholars claimed that women are mainly
working in the inferior positions and poorly paid jobs (Sigüenza, Brotons &
Huete, 2013). Male superiority with respect to the understating of “male
breadwinner” leads to the perception of males as the head of household and
decision makers for the family (Duffy et. al., 2015). Bearing this fact in
mind, policies need to be implemented with respect to increasing the prosperity
of women in the social realm. Merely increasing the job opportunities while
paying significantly less than men for the same job would not increase the
welfare of women, if not decrease it by degrading their power compared to men.

In general, the structure and the organization within
the labor market do not correspond to equality between genders, as it already
reproduces traditional gender roles which maintain the division in the sense
that women need to spend much more time and energy compared to men for the
domestic, family-related work such as cooking, cleaning, etc., hence men have
an advantage in the labor market (Sigüenza, Brotons & Huete, 2013). For
instance, cultural structure in lesser economically developed countries
discourage the participation of women into labor force, restricting the role of
women in the private sphere of house while keeping men active in the public
sphere of community (Duffy et. al, 2015). For that reason, presence of tourism
sector is capable of mitigating the gap between women and men, if the policies
target at increasing the prosperity of women implemented effectively.

The Contribution of Tourism
Sector to Gender Equality

Following
the rise of globalization, local economies started to integrate in larger ones,
providing benefits to the economic actors. However, distribution of welfare is
not independent from the internal dynamics of a particular region, and
therefore the impact of globalization generally differs for different groups
such as women, people with disabilities, or other type of marginalized groups
in rural or urban areas (Arora, 2012). If these differences are not regulated
properly by the means of national or local government policies, then the
positive influence of any kind of new economic activity will not be realized,
and rather the gap increases between advantages and disadvantaged, as in the
case of poor-rich gap, as well as the gap between women and men.

It has been claimed that, tourism can offer an
alternative for women where they can engage in activism, community leadership,
political realm, along with providing opportunities for employment and
entrepreneurship, and therefore every two of three people in tourism workforce
is female and women’s chance in tourism employment is twice more than being
employers in other sectors (World Tourism Organization, 2011; Figueroa-Domecq
et. al., 2015). Studies revealed the existence of women-managed tourism
enterprises as well. For instance, homestay tourism in certain destinations
including Nepal, Malaysia, Costa Rica and Thailand re mainly managed by women
entrepreneurs (Acharya & Halpenny, 2013). Especially with the help of these
types of entrepreneurships, tourism employment is capable of providing
advantages for women, which help to alleviate the devastating impact of gender
inequality (Khatiwada & Silva, 2015).

Although the process of tourism development is assumed
as being “gender-neutral”, scholars claim that gender dynamics are embedded in
the process (Ferguson, 2011), emphasizing the underlying impact of gender
discrimination which is not limited to overt practice of sexism, but rather it
subtly reproduce the gender roles through sexual division of labor and every
day sexism. Hence, construction and reinforcement of new power relations
emerging as a result of tourism process cannot be acknowledged properly without
understanding the complex structure of gender segregation in tourism and the
existing power relations (Kinnaird & Hall, 1996).

In order to provide a better understanding for the
complex structure of gender inequality and its relationship with tourism
industry, a model will be presented in order to explain the impact of tourism
on women with respect to three main variables including economic gains, social
inclusion and quality of life.

The Model

There are three important aspects that determine the
level of impact of tourism on gender equality, namely economic gains, social
integration and psychological well-being of women. To begin with the economic
impacts, existence of tourism industry in a particular destination provides an
important source of economic welfare by increasing the job opportunities.
Moreover, economic impact of tourism is not limited to employees who are
working in the tourism sector. As tourism is a key industry for overall
economic development, it makes the emergence of side industry possible,
increasing the overall labor demand. Since
the aim of this study is to measure the gender equality with respect to tourism
activity, absolute numbers will not be sufficient. Tourism may increase the
financial gains, hence economic well-being of individuals, but as long as the
rate of increase for the income of women is lower than men’s income, the gap
will be widened and the presence of tourism industry will reflect as a negative
impact on the lives of women. Therefore, the rate of wage received by women to
total wage will be considered as an indicator for the impact of tourism.

Other than economic gains, social inclusion is an
important determinant for the impact of tourism on decreasing gender
inequality, and as women participates into the labor force and become visible
in the social realm; their social inclusion will be increased. Parallel to the
increase in financial well-being and availability of new job opportunities,
social inclusion of lower socio-economic classes and financially disadvantaged
groups such as women, especially in patriarchal societies as in the case of
Nepal, considerably increases (Ancharya & Halpenny, 2013). Furthermore,
studies regarding to participation of disadvantaged, socially-excluded groups
in tourism sector claim that tourism provide opportunities to promote social
inclusion by facilitating social interaction, creating networks among people, and
increasing the possibility of communication (McCabe, Joldersma & Li, 2010;
Grant & Kluge, 2012, Morgan, Pritchard & Sedgley, 2015). For that
reason, the degree of social inclusion is presented in the model as an
important indicator of the impact of tourism.

Finally, overall change in the quality of life of
women is an important determinant for the impact of tourism on the women living
in a particular destination. There is no doubt that quality of life increases
with holiday participation (McCabe, Joldersma & Li, 2010), however, the
impact is not limited to tourists, and tourism activity also increases the life
quality of local stakeholders, and especially those from disadvantaged,
underrepresented groups, as in the case of women (Andereck & Nyaupane,
2011) through encouragement of intercultural interactions, understanding based
on communication, peace, social and economic prosperity apart from economic
growth (McCabe & Joldersma & Li, 2010). Although quality of life has
many dimensions to be measured, presence of tourism as a reliable economic
industry will basically increase the self-confidence of women as they start to
take part in the labor market. Economic independence from the family economy
not only empowers the position of women in the society, but it also has a
significant positive impact on overall life quality for women. The overall
well-being of women can be measured by quality of life (QoL) variable in a
quantitative manner, indicating the level of psychological wellness of local
women in a particular tourism destination.

Hence our model can be considered as:                     

(3)  
TI = ß₀ + ß₁.RW/TR + ß₂.
SI + ß₃.QL + ε

where,

TI implies the Impact of Tourism

RW implies Total Revenues
Received by Women

TR implies Total Revenues
Received by All Actors

SI implies the degree of Social
Inclusion for Women

QL implies Quality of Life of
Women

ß₀, ß₁, ß₂
and ß₃ imply coefficients, and

ε implies residual (i.e. the
effect of other variables).

Furthermore,
total revenues received by women are not necessarily limited to the gains of
women working in tourism sector, as agents may receive direct or indirect
benefits when a particular region attract tourists, parallel to the emergence
of side industries including accommodation, restaurants, small-scale
self-employed tourism goods or service providers, and so on. Hence, the total
revenue received by women is composed of two main groups, namely direct and
indirect revenues. First, women who are employed in the tourism sector receive
a direct economic benefit which is equal to wage (W_T). Moreover,
tourism enables development of other sectors, and new employment opportunities
for women in the side industries where women receive an indirect economic
benefit from tourism industry, which is equal to wage (W_S) as well.
Hypothetically, the wage levels for women who are working in the tourism sector
and other sectors will be equal to each other in a competitive market
structure, as employers will be willing to employ women who would work at lower
wages and hence maximizing his profit by lower labor costs. Thus, the estimated
Total Revenue Received by Women (RW) will be calculated as:

(4)  
RW = W_T + W_S

Where;

         W_T = W_S

To recap, financial gains compared to men, along with the degree of
social inclusion and the quality of life of women are the three main variables
that are capable of explaining the impact of tourism on women. All of the three
variables presented in the model have a positive relationship with the impact of
tourism, such that the development of tourism in a particular region increases the
job opportunity, enabling women to earn money outside of their families,
increasing their financial power compared to men and contributing to their
economic independence, and as a result women have a position in social life and
their psychological well-being improves with these gains.

In addition to economic and
social impacts, there may be other variables that are capable of explaining the
variance in the level of impact of tourism activity on gender equality that the
suggested model did not capture. For example, when tourists come to a
particular destination, they transform the cultural life of this region through
cultural interaction. As a result of adaptation towards the needs of tourists,
cultural codes can be re-established, by allowing women have more space and decreasing
their burden in terms of domestic labour. Because of this, a residual is presented
in the model, which implies the variance that cannot be explained by the two main
variables.

The model is suitable for any
type of numerical data, since the main target of this model is to measure the
contribution of tourism activity to gender equality in a quantitative form. Thus,
the provided model is capable of responding to the complex nature of gender
inequality, where various social and economic factors interplay, and allowing
their measurement by the means of statistical analysis of objective scientific
activity, rather than qualitative evaluations where objectivity can be
questioned.

Concluding Remarks

In conclusion, tourism enhances the economic
well-being of women and places them a more equal position compared to men only
if there are specific, women-targeting policies implemented by local or
national governments. Previous studies suggest that women working in the
tourism sector have worse conditions and paid less than men (Marrero &
Huete, 2013). Likewise in all other sectors, tourism maintains the economic and
sexual exploitation of women via atrocious employment practices, unequal
payments and recreating gender roles (Pritchard, 2014; Figueora-Domecq et. al.,
2015). Therefore presence of tourism sector would contribute further to
inferior position of women in the society and increasing the gender gap in the
absence of policies targeting to integrate women into social life by expanding
their limit from domestic sphere where they are mainly entitled with food
preparation, cleaning, biological and social reproduction of children, caring
for the sick and elderly, and so on (Ferguson, 2011; Duffy et. al., 2015).

Engagement of disadvantaged individuals in a society
such as minorities, people with disabilities as well as women with
community-based local level tourism enterprise has a valuable contribution to
economic, social and environmental development (Acharya & Halpenny, 2013).
Studies revealed the significant contribution of community based tourism
characterized by community based natural resource management emphasizing the
local resident participation and empowerment (Khatiwada & Silva, 2015). All
in all, empowerment of women is not only important for the lives of women, but
it also plays a crucial role in the future of a society in a particular
society, as integration of all individuals, and especially women, would be
likely to increase the overall prosperity.

Keywords

Gender, Inequality, Tourism

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