Want Women in the Workplace? It’s Time to Get Flexible
Hospitality, like many industries, is coming face to face with a clear gender disparity in upper management and executive level positions. Over 90% of hospitality industry Chief Executive Officers are men. The good news is that everyone in the hospitality industry has taken notice.
From restaurants to hotels, companies in all facets of the hospitality industry have begun taking steps to increase female representation at top management levels. For these efforts to succeed, we as an industry should consider two approaches. First, identify the obstacles that prevent women from moving up within the hospitality industry and work to remove them. Second, identify the workplace benefits and policies that make an organization attractive to women specifically.
What Obstacles Do Women Face in Hospitality?
It can be tempting to assume that one of the reasons women are underrepresented in upper management in the hospitality industry is that they are simply not that interested in the field. But that assumption is simply not true.
Here at [Redacted], we know without a doubt that women are interested in pursuing careers within the hospitality industry. We know this because 58% of our nearly 3,000 students at [Redacted] are women. Additionally, more than 50% of the overall hospitality workforce is comprised of women. Women are clearly interested in hospitality careers, yet they are not advancing in them at anywhere near the rate of their male colleagues.
The truth is, there are several factors that can prevent women from achieving executive level positions in any industry and hospitality is no exception. Perhaps one of the most difficult factors to quantify is the burden women carry because of what is known as the “second shift.”
Simply put, the “second shift” refers to the work women do in the domestic sphere after they come home from their formal job. Despite the many advances towards gender equality in all aspects of life, it seems the one area where women continue to experience pervasive inequality is at home.
A recent study found that women who hold senior management positions are far more likely to say they do more than half of the housework at home than their male counterparts. How much more likely? Seven times. Female senior executives are seven times more likely to do more than 50% of the housework than male senior executives. This extra burden takes time and energy.
Obviously, the workplace cannot be expected to create equality at home. What it can do, however, is adopt policies that make it easier for women to find work and life balance.
What Do Women Want at Work?
Corporations that want to attract the top female talent in the hospitality industry, need to pay competitive wages and offer attractive benefits. This may seem obvious but is worth mentioning due to the persistence of the gender wage gap and women’s need to juggle more home responsibilities with their careers.
According to the World Economic Forum’s “Global Gender Gap Report 2017,” men make nearly twice that of their female colleagues internationally. While the wage gap varies by country, there is room for improvement across the globe. In addition to equal pay, offering benefits such as flexible work arrangements can make a big difference for women.
Flexible work schedules, such as telecommuting or part-time hours, make it easier for everyone, men and women, to create and maintain a healthy work-life balance. But due to the added burden of housework and childcare that women traditionally face, non-traditional work arrangements can be especially important for women. In fact, given their disproportionate responsibilities at home, many women choose to work part time especially when they have young children at home. Offering flexible scheduling and telecommuting opportunities can help create a work culture that supports the advancement of women up the corporate ladder.
What’s the Impact on Organizational Outcomes?
First and foremost, paying equal wages and offering great benefits attracts top talent, both men and women. Over 80% of Millennials work in organizations with flexible working conditions. As the next generation of innovators and thought leaders, Millennials are changing the landscape the global workforce. Benefits that earlier generations would have considered perks, such as flexible working opportunities, are becoming commonplace and almost expected.
Beyond attracting top talent, flexible work arrangements can be good for an organization's bottom line. Creating part-time positions within management may not seem counterintuitive, as often managers put in extra hours on a regular basis to ensure smooth operations. But research has shown that family-friendly company policies correlate with improved productivity and employee satisfaction.
A study recently submitted for publication by Dr. Sowon Kim found that women in part-time top management positions helped rather than hindered hotel sales volatility. Throughout her research, Dr. Kim "found that women in top management and part-time roles are able to cope with high volatility and stabilize sales performance."
A diverse workforce is a strong and sustainable workforce - in every industry, at every level. With so few women in top management positions, the hospitality industry inadvertently limits itself and inhibits the innovative thinking that differing perspectives can foster.
Gender parity at the highest levels of management has the potential to transform the industry. To achieve that, hospitality and tourism management organizations must consider the needs of female employees. Not just to change the industry, but to improve their own bottom line. As Dr. Kim postulated in her study, "Our results might indicate that policies which allow employees, and in particular women to benefit from other types of work arrangements, with the aim of managing their work-family responsibilities, are good for business."