Gender and sustainable tourism: reflections on theory and practice

Abstract

Despite the rich and diverse tradition of research on the gender dimensions of tourism, such studies have had little impact on transforming unequal gendered power relations in the sector itself. In this paper, we are concerned with why this is the case and what steps might be taken to redress this situation. The paper argues that the challenges inherent in gender mainstreaming processes within public policies worldwide are replicated and À to some extent À exacerbated in the tourism sector. We contend that, despite its substantive insight into the sector, the impact of such literature has been minimal. We further suggest that this is, in part, due to the sustainable tourism paradigm's resistance to incorporating gender equality and gender analysis as core principles. In order to develop these arguments, we reflect on our experiences as specialist consultants in gender and sustainable tourism, drawing out some of the key tensions of integrating gender into sustainable tourism projects. In conclusion, we argue that there is substantive work to be done for gender to be integrated into the theory and practice of sustainable tourism, offering recommendations as to how this process might be improved.

Environmental Justice and Women Empowerment in Nyungwe National Park (Rwanda): Case Study of Kitabi Women Handcrafts Cooperative

“…This sort of empowerment led to the satisfaction of cooperative members with regards to employment, health insurance, food security and environmental raising awareness. This result confirms the fact that women are so influential in the process of change [36,32]. It also states that engaging sustainable development initiatives without involving them is an empty gesture [33].…”

“…In Rwanda, where women count for 51.8% of the total population mostly living in rural areas including protected areas [30], gender-oriented studies with regard to natural resources management and environmental justice are missing in scientific discourse. The study on women empowerment through environmental justice in NNP was conducted to fill this gap for three main reasons: (1) Women are materially adversely affected by environmental degradation due to disproportionately assigned caring and provisioning roles and obligations [31], (2) Women are evolving in a traditionally male dominated structure [32] and (3) Women are more likely to interact with environment in their daily basis [33][34][35][36]. Its main objective was to explore and investigate how women are empowered as a specific and key social group.…”

A critical framework for interrogating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 Agenda in tourism

“…Furthermore, concerns regarding the lack of local representation in tourism decision-making (Freire-Mederios, 2013), apprehensions regarding gender equality (e.g. Ferguson & Alarcon, 2015), environmental fears challenging the notion of sustainability (e.g. Higgins-Desbiolles, 2018), environmental justice (Higgins-Desbiolles & Powys Whyte, 2013), the postcolonial nature of the industry (e.g.…”

Participación de las mujeres en empresas de hospedaje del municipio de Toluca. Análisis de su empoderamiento

“…Cabe mencionar que, hoy en día, las mujeres están ingresando en ámbitos que eran ocupados tradicionalmente por hombres (Moreno y Lunar, 2006;Baum, 2013;Aguilar et al, 2015), tal es el caso del sector turístico. En este sentido, el empleo en este sector está organizado en función del género, por tal motivo, los salarios de las trabajadoras son bajos (Ferguson y Moreno, 2014). Es así que, el turismo, como estrategia de desarrollo, ha recibido poca atención al respecto, en especial sobre la justicia social global y el combate contra las desigualdades (Ferguson, 2010).…”