Gender Bias in Hospitality Service

It is believed that women are more likely to have social skills than men in activities that require emotional labor, like listening to complaints and attending guests. Joan Williams in her book “Unbending Gender” observes that “women are held to a different standard at work and tend to be labeled as strident or abrasive when acting as leaders”. She said, “women have to choose between being liked but not respected, or respected but not liked.” (Belkin 2007).In the 1970s, for the first time employers faced federal government pressure to hire and promote women into professional and managerial jobs. With industrialization women of different social strata began to leave the private sphere of their homes to participate in the public sphere of paid employment. Now, women are moving beyond the traditional female occupations and into careers formerly dominated by men and work full time and year-round. Looking at the generic patterns and practices within organizations that lead to the empowerment of women it is not easy to uncover related sets of discriminatory organizational circumstances and forewarn most ambitious and even the bravest women to be geared up to face the consequences. Glick at Lawrence University, Appleton enlightens us through his words “some of what we are learning is directly helpful, and tells women that they are acting in ways they might not even be aware of, and that is harming them and they can change” but have no way to “fight back.” He concludes that “the problem is with the perception “and not with the woman and “it is not the problem of an individual, it’s a problem of a corporation.” (Belkin 2007) Exploring the substantial research on feminism and involving men and women who have experience in hospitality service, with the realization that they are part of an occupation that seek accommodation, negotiation, and resolution of conflictbetween organizations and the groups on which their employers depend, it will be possible to bring change within organizations and themselves.