Off the beaten track: empowering women in Tourism and Creativity
How the pandemic has affected the women’s labor market and how OTBT intends to support women’s empowerment
Article by Destination Makers
Tourism and Culture & Creativity are two of Europe’s most important industries: according to UNWTO, Europe is the world’s most visited region in terms of arrivals.
Speaking about employment, Tourism accounted for 9.8% of total employment in Europe in 2017, a proportion expected to rise year by year despite crises and the pandemic[1].
Gender inequality is a major challenge, in fact it still persists, despite the fact that 80% of men consider gender equality to be important to them personally and 91% of Europeans think it is important for a fair and democratic society.
According to a report released by Equality in Tourism, in Europe 53% of employed people in this sector are women but they do not have the best jobs, incomes and positions[2].
Linked to the under-representation of women in leadership positions is the growing evidence of a significant gender pay gap in the industry. The wider the gender pay gap, the fewer women can be found in highly paid top management and executive positions. Giving a number: the median gender pay gap for tourism in Europe is 22%[3].
These are all pre-pandemic data and do not affect only the tourism sector, but also culture and creative industries. The Covid-19 pandemic has not only exposed the existing systemic gender inequalities and injustices in the labor market but also exacerbated them. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, the situation has further deteriorated and many women have lost their jobs or incomes.
Globally, women lost more than 64 million jobs in 2020—a 5% loss, compared to a 3.9% loss for men[4].
Furthermore, the European cultural and creative industries lost 31% of its turnover in 2020 due to the pandemic and was one of the most impacted sectors together with tourism.
A research by the Parents & Carers in the Performing Arts collective (PiPA) in the UK in October 2020 looked at the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on workers in the performing arts on an intersectional basis and showed that women were 50% more likely than men to be uncertain about their futures in the performing arts[5].
Our “Off the beaten track” project, co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme by the European Commission, fosters cross-innovation between CCSs and tourism.
We’ll promote networking, inspiration and empathy among women of different backgrounds, ages, geographies and cultures, and the most vulnerable and disadvantaged ones would be empowered and inspired with their life and work and to better face uncertainties about their future; motivating women in engaging in sustainable development through creativity, problem solving and resilience, along with enhanced digital competence.
We’ll involve renowned female changemakers to inspire and encourage them to start their own businesses or aspire to better job positions. In doing so, we’ll contribute to the achievement of four specific UN Sustainable Development Goals: Specifically, (SDG5) it aims at contributing to end all forms of discrimination against women, ensuring them equal opportunities to actively participate to economic, social and political life, promoting their empowerment through informal learning, peer-mentoring and through ICT tools, (SDG3) it claims that ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages is essential to sustainable development, especially in the face of COVID-19, (SDG4) it promotes lifelong learning and strives to ensure that women across Europe acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, gender equality, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity, (SDG8) it promotes women empowerment through sustainable tourism as a key sector capable of creating jobs and enhancing local culture.
In order to understand what the current state of the art is, learn about the experiences of European women and which soft skills are the most needed, we launched an open survey.
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Sources
[1] UNWTO, Global Report on Women in Tourism – Second Edition
[2] Equality in Tourism, SUN, SAND AND CEILINGS: WOMEN IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY BOARDROOMS
[3] UNWTO, Global Report on Women in Tourism – Second Edition
[4] UNWomen, Advancing Women Economic Empowerment in the Tourism Sector in Covid-19
[5] European Commission, Directorate-General for Education, Youth, Sport and Culture, Towards gender equality in the cultural and creative sectors : report of the OMC (open method of coordination) working group of Member States’ experts, Menzel, A.(editor), Publications Office, 2021, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2766/122208
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