A Fight Worth Fighting

Written by Joanna Jagger

Published15 June, 2022

Photo credit Steph Townsend

Moving beyond the ‘old-boys’ club’: CapU instructor established WORTH Association to advance equity for women in the tourism industry.

To get to know my students in TOUR 471: Human Capital Planning, I ask them to write their names on a folded piece of paper, followed by the title of their dream job in tourism.

Over the years, I have noticed a frustrating trend: women generally play it safe, choosing titles such as co-ordinator or supervisor, whereas men daydream about senior roles like General Manager, Vice-President, or CEO.

I wonder what role I would have written had I been assigned this icebreaker when I was a student. As a young woman, I had leadership ambitions in the industry but little guidance or support to navigate my path within it. Like most women I know, I endured sexism, bias and harassment in my twenty years working in hospitality. I even experienced pregnancy discrimination as a human resources executive — my “dream job” at the time.

I witnessed firsthand the inequities of the industry and how frequently women exit. An invisible off-ramp exists for mid-level female management, and they are often directed there if they choose to start a family. I can’t understand how it’s possible that women are not always dominating in a female-dominated industry.

This led me to create WORTH (Women of Recreation, Tourism and Hospitality) Association. Founded in 2018, we support self-identified women with mentorships, scholarships, networking and career resources. It’s the organization I needed when I was 19 years old.

Throughout the pandemic, tourism was among the hardest hit industries with the greatest number of job losses. The off-ramp became very crowded. I watched helplessly as my friends, former colleagues and students left the industry in droves due to layoffs and closures.

On the heels of the “Shecession,” called this because so many COVID job losses were held by women, came the Great Resignation.

When jobs rebounded, women who were pushed out elected not to return. WORTH Association’s mandate has evolved from advancing women in leadership to simply retaining them. Tourism operators now face a significant labour crisis, yet few people are addressing the gender imbalance that has driven so many women away.

I set out to discover how the industry might retain women of recreation, tourism and hospitality. Thanks to CapU’s Unified Grant, I hired two research assistants from the School of Tourism Management. Julie Johnson-Lepine and Sebastien Laroye joined fifty industry leaders in a focus group at the Vancouver Lookout to find some answers.

In the Seat at the Table study, we produced recommendations related to balance, benefits, inclusion, learning and safe workplaces. Findings suggest the industry needs more transparency, better inclusion leaders, and improved processes for flexibility. We created a gender equity audit, a tool that organizations can use to evaluate their score on 65 measures for progress.

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WORTH Association Fast Facts

In the hospitality industry, men are 10x more likely to be promoted to the principal/partner or president levels than women and 15.5x times more likely to be promoted to CEO.
The hospitality industry has been less successful at developing its women than the firms of the S&P 500 and the S&P 500 Finance.
Women comprise 70 percent of the tourism and hospitality workforce but hold less than 40 percent of managerial positions, less than 20 percent of general management roles and less than 8 percent of board positions.
Vancouver’s gender pay gap is 11.7% for women in management positions.
In Metro Vancouver, female Accommodation Service Managers earn .77 cents for every $1.00 earned by a man in the same role.
84 percent of men and 70 percent of women agreed that “women entering hospitality companies today will have more opportunities for upward movement into top executive positions than have past generations.”

_{Source: Castell Project & Tourism HR Canada 2016 Census}

The students and I were invited to present our findings at the BC Tourism and Hospitality Conference in March. On the first day, the Chair of the Tourism Industry Association invited all the women in the audience to stand in recognition of International Women’s Day. He followed a round of applause with an invitation to “go clean the rooms and do the dishes,” a misogynist comment making light of the labour crisis.

Those words stung. I thought of my students, young women who play it safe with their ambitions, sometimes nervous about taking up space. I recalled the stories from our study and the women who shared examples of barriers and biases that got in their way. I thought of the thousands of members of WORTH Association, all tired of the “old boys’ club.” I remembered all the moments in my career I was made to feel small. I considered Julie, a 19-year-old research assistant who was about to take the stage to discuss progress, despite the opening comments humiliating women.

We recognized the weight and significance of our research and presented it to a responsive audience. We shared our recommendations with more than one hundred tourism leaders, operators and academics. Even the board Chair joined the session after my insistence that he attend to learn why his remarks were wrong.

Since the conference, our research has been widely publicized throughout the industry, along with a rallying call for change. The Chair stepped down, and the conference organizers have committed to meaningful actions to enhance women’s representation. Organizations have shared their commitments and equity actions, some even donating to the Association so we can continue our work. We’ve been invited to speak to industry associations and organizations across the province.

I may not have used my voice when I was 19, but I absolutely use it now. Luckily, I found my real dream job. I will continue to advocate for equity so that students entering tourism can pursue their ambitions without any detours. Helping women know their worth is worth fighting for.

A Fight Worth Fighting

School of Tourism Management

WORTH Association Fast Facts

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