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This study explores the various obstacles that female instructors and students confront in tourism education.

Utilizing qualitative research approaches and a thorough literature assessment, this study investigates women’s complex challenges in the academic and educational domains. The study examines the particular difficulties faced by female professors, such as work-life balance concerns, gender bias and limited opportunities for career advancement. Furthermore, the study also analyses the challenges that female students confront, including the threat of stereotypes, sexual harassment during internships and restricted access to networking and mentorship possibilities.

Findings illustrate that both female tourism academics and students face gender discrimination in academia and in the sector.

The findings may contribute valuable insights for policymakers, educators and stakeholders, emphasizing the need for targeted interventions and inclusive policies to create supportive environments for female lecturers and students in these departments.

This is the first study done in North Cyprus, which specifically analyzes gender inequality in tourism education. It is valuable as it emphasizes the significance of advancing gender equality in tourism and hospitality education.

This paper aims to explore gender disparities in the production of tourism knowledge with particular reference to academic journals.

Authorship and co-authorship analyses were conducted of data extracted from articles and research notes published between 1965 and 2016 in 25 hospitality and tourism journals.

Gender imbalances are evident in the production of knowledge, though the disparities appear to be decreasing. While heterophilic research collaborations (those between men and women) show some evidence of higher productivity, homophilic collaborations (between males) have greater impact. The findings highlight gender imbalances in international collaborations, in SSCI listed journals, in first authoring and by country. There is evidence of higher collaborative levels among male authors and the differences have increased over time. The positioning of men and women within tourism scholarly networks shows no marked differences.

This data-driven analysis provides decision makers and policymakers with evidence to support well-targeted programs that advance female contributions in hospitality and tourism research collaborations. For example, senior academics and University administrators might offer support for female researchers to become more actively involved in hospitality and tourism research groups and projects. Universities or schools might also seek to encourage collaborations between male and female researchers in their performance indicators.

This study is one of the first to examine gender disparities and positioning in collaborative hospitality and tourism research.

This paper seeks to find factors that influence the growth intention of female-owned small businesses in the Ghana’s tourism sector. The purpose of this paper is to investigate why some female entrepreneurs achieve growth objectives while others do not.

In this study, the authors seek to understand the growth intention within the tourism sector because it is not clear why some female entrepreneurs in Ghana pursue growth. The study applies quantitative techniques. A questionnaire survey was conducted with 110 female tourism entrepreneurs in Ghana. Data analysis was conducted using the non-parametric procedures of Spearman’s rank correlation.

The findings of this research reveal that female tourism entrepreneurs in Ghana feel they can expand without entrepreneurial ability(ies). However, the growth of the venture is restricted by the lack of financial resources. Opportunities in the tourism sector do generate more customers, but cannot alone determine growth intentions. Furthermore, an important finding of this study is that business advisory services do not contribute significantly to the growth intention of the venture. The research made clear that the pursuance of growth is related to different types of opportunities and finance leveraging.

The study has gender-specific, industry-specific, size-specific and region-specific limitations. Another limitation is focus on entrepreneurial ability, opportunity and business advisory support services as determinants of female entrepreneurs’ growth intention.

This study provides useful information for government, business agencies and academics seeking reasons on why female entrepreneurs have low growth intentions. Policy measures are provided in assisting women in achieving their growth aspirational needs and suggestions are recommended to encourage women to grow their small tourism businesses.

The research will contribute to improve the socio-economic status of women entrepreneurs in Africa.

This paper addresses an under-researched area of female tourism entrepreneurs and their growth intention from the perspective of a developing country such as Ghana.

The purpose of this paper is to explain the problem with how gender is positioned in hospitality and tourism management studies. It recommends critical theories to investigate how gender is researched in the sector’s academic and institutional systems.

The conceptual study explains contemporary gender theories and gives examples of relevant hospitality and tourism management studies. A four point critical agenda for researching gender is proposed and justified.

The study highlights how the focus on “female leadership” as different from the male norm and the use of traditional theoretical framings reinforce stereotypes about the primacy of women’s domestic commitments to their detriment.

A limitation of this academy focussed study is that it has not recommended specific initiatives to combat specific issues of gender discrimination in hospitality and tourism employment. A further limitation is that the primary focus was on critical management theory to explain heteronormative based gender discrimination. It did not discuss queer theory.

In addition, a new research agenda, steps are proposed to change the masculine culture. Hospitality and tourism universities and research institutions should review men’s/women’s/gender diverse representation at leadership levels. Critical gender research approaches may also be fostered by sectorial conference streams and journal special issues and university graduate research students should be taught to design such studies.

The use of contemporary approaches in gender studies will enable researchers to propose more targeted equality and diversity management actions for industry. They will also assist educators to better design curricula that protect and promote the interests of women studying a hospitality, tourism or events degree and those who identify as gender diverse.

The paper challenges the masculine status quo in hospitality and tourism management gender studies, arguing that adherence to traditional orthodoxies has stifled the development of critical paradigms and methodologies. Its key contribution is to reveal the advantages that critical gender theorising can bring to further the aim of gender equality by showing practical applications.

Gender inequality is evident in many academic practices, but research has often focused on the male-dominated science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields. This study responds to calls for more work in the business disciplines which have been overlooked by comparison and focuses on academic conferences as a higher education practice. Conferences are manifestations of the research being conducted within the discipline, representing the type of knowledge that is considered valuable, and who the thought leaders are considered to be. This study investigates whether equal representation of women at such conferences really matters, to whom and why.

The research was designed using a critical feminist theory approach. An online survey was disseminated to academic staff and postgraduate students in the 25 top ranked business schools in Australia and New Zealand. A total of 452 responses were received, and thematic analysis was applied to open-ended responses.

Equal representation does matter, for two sets of reasons. The first align with feminist theory perspectives of “equal opportunity” (gender is neutral), “difference” (gender is celebrated) or “post-equity” (the social construction of gender itself is problematic). The second are pragmatic consequences, namely the importance of role modelling, career building and the respect and recognition that come with conference attendance and visible leadership roles.

The findings have implications in regards to job satisfaction, productivity and the future recruitment and retention of women in academia. Furthermore, in areas where women are not researching, the questions and issues that are important to them are not receiving the attention they deserve, and this gender data gap has consequences for society at large.

This study moves beyond simply identifying the under-representation of women at academic conferences in yet another field, to investigate why equal representation is important and to whom. It provides valuable evidence of the consequences of under-representation, as perceived by academics themselves.

This study aims to explore the meanings of solo travel for Asian women, focussing on how Asian women construct and negotiate their identities in the heteronormalised, gendered and Western-centric tourism space.

In-depth interviews were conducted with 35 Asian solo female travellers from ten Asian countries/societies and analysed using constructivist grounded theory. The interpretation was guided by a critical stance and intersectionality lens.

The findings show that solo travel provides a means for self-discovery but the path was different for Asian women, for whom the self is constructed by challenging the social expectations of Asian women. Western-centric discourse was identified in the participants’ interactions with other (Western) travellers and tourism service providers, as well as in the ways these Asian women perceive themselves in relation to Western travellers. In addition to gendered constraints and risks, the findings also reveal the positive meaning of being Asian women in the gendered tourism space.

By labelling Asian women, the study risks adopting an essentialised view and overlooking the differences within the group. However, this strategic essentialism is necessary to draw attention to the inequalities that persist in contemporary tourism spaces and practices.

This study investigated Asian solo female travellers, an emerging but under-researched segment. It provides a critical examination of the intersectional effect of gender and race on identity construction for Asian solo female travellers. This study shows the need for a more inclusive tourism space.

This study aims to investigate the perceptions of female tour guides’ lower and top levels of management in travel agencies about how misunderstanding Islam and its culture may engender the poor representation of women in the tour guide profession.

A qualitative research method is used, and semi-structured interviews were conducted with 32 full-time female tour guides working at several travel agencies in Egypt. Thematic analysis helped extract main ideas from the transcripts.

The representation of female tour guides in travel agencies is shaped by the following three determinants: religious (familial obligations and marital status), contextual (nature of tour guide activities, poor representation of women in senior tourism-related jobs, cronyism, sexual harassment and spread of foreign female tour guides) and media influence. Understanding these three factors may enable a more comprehensive representation of female tour guides.

Female tour guides could work closely with tourism policymakers in Egypt to shape the media messages about them. This might include elaborating on the main challenges faced by female tour guides. Social support from families and friends may allow female tour guides more freedom and empowerment.

This study contributes by filling a gap in tourism, human resources management and gender studies in which empirical studies on the representation of females in travel agencies have been limited so far.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the role of female entrepreneurs in the development of sustainable tourism in marginal rural mountain areas. This role is studied with reference to two focal points: female entrepreneurs’ involvement in the creation and management of tourism/hospitality services characterized by elements of authenticity, experientiality and innovation (Focus 1) and their willingness to create or participate in local stakeholder networks (Focus 2).

Exploratory research was conducted in mountain areas where tourism development is still marginal. In depth face-to-face interviews were conducted with 11 businesswomen in Trentino (Italy), who agreed to take part in this study.

Female entrepreneurs play a very important role in the development of sustainable mountain tourism. Elements of authenticity, experientiality and innovation are shown to be characteristic of female entrepreneurship, as is women’s propensity to create and foster local stakeholder networks (directly or indirectly) linked to their own businesses.

In the light of the exploratory nature of this study, a small convenience sample was used.

This research highlights specific features of female entrepreneurship related to the sustainable development of marginal rural areas and contributes to the academic debate on the topic. This topic is under-researched with regard to developed countries.